228 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



forth accordingly. The country was very dry, and the 

 game in our immediate neighborhood was not plentiful 

 and was rather shy. I killed three kongoni out of a herd, 

 at from two hundred and fifty to three hundred and ninety 

 paces; one topi at three hundred and thirty paces, and a 

 Roberts' gazelle at two hundred and seventy. Meanwhile 

 the other two had killed a kongoni and five of the big ga- 

 zelles; wherever possible the game being hallalled in ortho- 

 dox fashion by the Mahometans among our attendants, 

 so as to fit it for use by their coreligionists among the por- 

 ters. Then we saw some giraffes, and galloped them to 

 see if there was a really big bull in the lot. They had a 

 long start, but Kermit and Tarlton overtook them after 

 a couple of miles, while I pounded along in the rear. How- 

 ever there was no really good bull, Kermit and Tarlton 

 pulled up, and we jogged along toward the koppies where 

 two days before I had shot the lioness. I killed a big bus- 

 tard, a very handsome, striking-looking bird, larger than a 

 turkey, by a rather good shot at two hundred and thirty 

 yards. 



It was now mid-day, and the heat waves quivered above 

 the brown plain. The mirage hung in the middle distance, 

 and beyond it the bold hills rose like mountains from a 

 lake. In mid-afternoon we stopped at a little pool, to give 

 the men and horses water; and here Kermit's horse sud- 

 denly went dead lame, and we started it back to camp with 

 a couple of men, while Kermit went forward with us on 

 foot, as we rode round the base of the first koppies. After 

 we had, gone a mile loud shouts called our attention to one 

 of the men who had left with the lame horse. He was 

 running back to tell us that they had just seen a big maned 

 lion walking along in the open plain toward the body of 

 a zebra he had killed the night before. Immediately Tarl- 

 ton and I galloped in the direction indicated, while the 

 heart-broken Kermit ran after us on foot, so as not to miss 

 the fun; the gun-bearers and saises stringing out behind 

 him. In a few minutes Tarlton pointed out the lion, a 



