130 AFRICA SPEAKS 



toward a likely spot, her possibilities of success were 

 discussed. She had always dreamed of her first Hon 

 as being a huge beast which she killed with one shot, 

 and now that the actual meeting was approaching she 

 had two fears; one that the animal would be an under- 

 sized, scrawny beast, the other that she would be 

 unable to hit him. 



About two hours after sunrise we were going slowly 

 along a donga when an impalla ram came running 

 toward us. Now this was a very unusual thing for 

 an animal to do so we watched him closely. He be- 

 came aware of our presence and stopped to gaze at us, 

 then turned around and stood rigid while he took a 

 long look down the trail over which he came. We 

 looked in the direction of his coming but were unable 

 to see far because of wild sisal and cactus. When we 

 turned a httle corner, however, we saw what the im- 

 palla had been watching. There about two hundred 

 yards away stood a beautiful honess. Mona got all 

 excited but Mike and I persuaded her it would be 

 very unladylike to shoot another lady. 



An hour or so later, and farther down the same donga, 

 I noticed some vultures sitting in a tree and that all 

 of these birds were looking in the same direction, so I 

 cHmbed into the rear of the truck where I could get a 

 better view. When vultures assemble there is usually 

 a dead animal close by, and when they perch in trees 

 this way, it means that something is keeping them 

 from the carcass. I kept my eyes focused in the direc- 

 tion they were looking and stretching to full height 

 tried to see over the edge of the steep bank. While in 

 this position, the head and shoulders of a very big Hon 

 slowly arose in front of me. He was not more than 



