362 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



the sun glinted on the horn bosses. It was ten o'clock, a 

 hot, windless morning on the equator, with the sun shin- 

 ing from a cloudless sky; yet these buffalo were feeding in 

 the open, miles from water or dense cover. They were 

 greedily cropping the few tufts of coarse herbage that grew 

 among the sparse thorn-bushes, which here were not more 

 than two feet high. In many places buffalo are purely 

 nocturnal feeders, and do not come into the hot, bare plains 

 in the scorching glare of daylight; and our experience with 

 this herd illustrates afresh the need of caution in generaliz- 

 ing about the habits of game. 



We crept toward them on all-fours, having left the por- 

 ters hidden from sight. At last we were within rather long 

 range a buffalo's eyesight is good, and cannot be trifled 

 with as if he were a rhino or elephant and cautiously 

 scrutinized the herd through our glasses. There were only 

 cows and perhaps one or two young bulls with horns no 

 bigger than those of cows. I would have liked another good 

 bull's head for myself; but I also wished another cow for 

 the museum. Before I could shoot, however, a loud yelling 

 was heard from among the porters in our rear; and away 

 went the buffalo. Full of wrath, we walked back to in- 

 quire. We found that one porter had lost his knife, and 

 had started back to look for it, accompanied by two of his 

 fellows, which was absolutely against orders. They had 

 come across a rhino, probably the one I had frightened 

 from our path, and had endeavored to avoid him; but he 

 had charged them, whereupon they scattered. He over- 

 took one and tossed him, goring him in the thigh; where- 

 upon they came back, the two unwounded ones supporting 

 the other, and all howling like lost souls. I had some crystals 

 of permanganate, an antiseptic, and some cotton in my 

 saddle pocket; Cuninghame tore some of the lining out of 

 his sleeve for a bandage; and we fixed the man up and left 

 him with one companion, while we sent another in to camp 

 to fetch out a dozen men with a ground-sheet and some 

 poles, to make a litter in which the wounded man could be 



