

A WOUNDED ZEBRA. 33 



all differences, and explained to each which was 

 master and which was servant. 



As I anticipated getting meat, I had several 

 natives of the Bakalihari tribe with me lean-looking 

 fellows, with the appetites and capacity of stowage 

 of boa constrictors. Spooring was not necessary, 

 for we had but to find the vortex of the circle 

 described by the birds in the air, to find the prey ; 

 but, long before we had done so, we discovered 

 where the game lay by the audience of corbovans 

 and vultures that surrounded a trifling indentation 

 of the ground a few hundred yards to our front. 

 This congregation was remarkable for its numbers 

 and solemnity. If they had been human beings 

 instead of birds, and the scene transferred to a part 

 of the Highlands of Scotland, they would have 

 delighted the heart of an old minister I ken of, 

 belonging to a kirk not yet disestablished. 



It was a matter of surprise to me that among 

 the number of these interested beings some one had 

 not taken upon himself the task of saying grace, 

 and thus removed the final obstacle that prevented 

 the commencement of the feast ; but the time had 

 not arrived for this important ceremony to be per- 

 formed, for the victim was not yet at death's door, 

 although so grievously wounded that it could not 

 travel further. As I approached the petsi (Sichuana 

 for Burchell's zebra, the same name being also fre- 

 quently applied in this country to a horse), the poor 



D 



