A Native Hunting Party. 225 



trek a herd of liartebsast wa^ seen, from the wao-o-on, 

 which Sh' John Willoughby pursued. After a 

 long chase he succeeded in killing one close to the 

 spot where we outspanned. lsTow there were in 

 camp four dead antelope, and much " bill-tong " 

 was made. Four Mashona had made a little hut 

 close by our camp, and gladly assisted in cutting 

 up the meat, of which they received an ample 

 supply. Little native hunting parties are fre- 

 quently met with in this veldt. Two or three in 

 number, with one wretched old musket and two or 

 three charges of ammunition in common, they 

 rarely kill anything themselves, but trust to find- 

 ing the dead or wounded game of others, or to 

 being fed by some hunting party such cas ours. In 

 default of these resources they subsist on cater- 

 pillars, which are found in large quantities on 

 the topmost branches of certain trees. Towards 

 evening I went out for a short ride with Lee in the 

 vicinity of the camp. We got no shot, making 

 three unsuccessful attempts to stalk successively a 

 fine old pauw (bustard), an oribi (sort of gazelle), 

 and two hartebeest cows. Fresh eland spoor were 

 seen, which kindled my hopes of getting a chase 

 after this fine antelope on the morrow. ISText day, 

 accompanied by " the Baboon," we hunted in the 

 direction of the Umfuli River. It was a morning 

 of misfortune. Both Sir John Willoughby and I 

 got good standing shots at two solitary roan 

 antelope bulls, and both missed without excuse. 

 Lee also chased and fired at, without result, two 

 koodoo cows. In the course of our ride we 



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