190 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



fortunately the head of the swallowed snake was digested, 

 but the body looked like that of a young puff adder. 



The day after reaching this camp I rode off for a hunt, 

 accompanied by my two gun-bearers and with a dozen 

 porters following, to handle whatever I killed. One of 

 my original gun-bearers, Mahomet, though a good man in 

 the field, had proved in other respects so unsatisfactory 

 that he had been replaced by another, a Wakamba heathen 

 named Gouvimali I could never remember his name un- 

 til, as a mnemonic aid, Kermit suggested that I think of 

 Gouverneur Morris, the old Federalist statesman, whose life 

 I had once studied. He was a capital man for the work. 



Half a mile from camp I saw a buck tommy with a good 

 head, and as we needed his delicious venison for our own 

 table, I dismounted and after a little care killed him as he 

 faced me at two hundred and ten yards. Sending him 

 back by one of the porters, I rode on toward two topi we 

 saw far in front. But there were zebra, hartebeest, and 

 wildebeest in between, all of which ran; and the topi proved 

 wary. I was still walking after them when we made out 

 two eland bulls ahead and to our left. The ground was too 

 open to admit of the possibility of a stalk; but leaving my 

 horse and the porters to follow slowly, the gun-bearers 

 and I walked quartering toward them. They hesitated 

 about going, and when I had come as close as I dared, I 

 motioned to the two gun-bearers to continue walking, and 

 dropped on one knee. I had the little Springfield, and was 

 anxious to test the new sharp-pointed military bullet on 

 some large animal. The biggest bull was half facing me, 

 just two hundred and eighty yards off; I fired a little bit 

 high and a trifle to the left; but the tiny ball broke his 

 back and the splendid beast, heavy as a prize steer, came 

 plunging and struggling to the ground. The other bull 

 started to run off, but after I had walked a hundred yards 

 forward, he actually trotted back toward his companion; 

 then halted, turned, and galloped across my front at a 

 distance of a hundred and eighty yards; and him too I 



