AFRICAN CAMP FIRES 



psychology. When a man is out after a species new 

 to him, it is only by the utmost stretch of the im- 

 agination that he is able to realize that such an 

 animal can exist at all. He cannot prefigure it, 

 somehow. He generally exaggerates to himself 

 the difficulty of making it out, of approaching it, 

 of getting his shot; until at last, if he happens to 

 have hunted some time in vain, the beast becomes 

 almost mythical and unbelievable. Once he has seen 

 the animal, whether he gets a shot or not, all this 

 vanishes. The strain on faith relaxes. He knows 

 what to look for, and what to expect; and even if he 

 sees no other specimen for a month, he nevertheless 

 goes about the business with a certain confidence. 



One afternoon we had been hunting carefully cer- 

 tain low mountains, and were headed for camp, 

 walking rather carelessly along the bed of a narrow, 

 open valley below the bush-covered side hills. The 

 sun had disappeared behind the ranges, and the dusk 

 of evening was just beginning to rise like a mist from 

 the deeps of the canons. We had ceased hunting — 

 it was time to hurry home — and happened not to be 

 talking only because we were tired. By sheerest 

 idle luck I chanced to look up to the densely covered 

 face of the mountain. Across a single tiny opening 

 in the tall brush five or six hundred yards away I 

 caught a movement. Still idly I lifted my glasses 



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