CHAPTER XII. 



'UFF-ADDERS THE STRENGTH OF THEIR POISON. 



ALTHOUGH the fall I experienced in pursuit of the 

 bush-pig was anything but a joke, I felt no further 

 inconvenience from it, than being a little stiff in the 

 morning, and as for the mare, she appeared to be in 

 no way affected by the contretemps, for she not only 

 greedily emptied her nose-bag that night, but looked 

 on the morrow fit to go for a man's life. Nobody 

 in Africa appears to surfer from such accidents. 

 It is fortunate they do not, for so frequent are they 

 that, if the result were otherwise, the colony would 

 soon become depopulated. 



I have noticed the same in India in India in 

 the good old days when John Company was king. 

 The subalterns of that time were not like those that 

 are to be found in that sunny region now. I do not 

 write from malice prepense, but from the personal 

 1 experience of others as well as that of myself. 



Just before the mutiny occurred, I saw many 

 I a youngster, when a sounder of hogs was reported 

 '! in the vicinity of camp, go in pursuit of them 



