264 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



away, and I observed that neither of them ever raised its 

 head, but held its snout close to the ground, keeping up a 

 continuous roar and squealing the whole time. At last they 

 closed ; but not for long, for after a few most violent and 

 vicious digs at each other, they separated and again stood 

 facing. As this sort of thing went on for about a quarter of 

 an hour, their bouts becoming more and more vicious and 

 prolonged, and as they were entirely engrossed in themselves, 

 I exchanged my Express for the 8-bore, and, followed by 

 Ramazan with the 4-bore, crept up to a large ant-heap within 

 40 yards of them, and lay watching them for another five 

 minutes. How long they would have kept up this fight there 

 is no knowing, but, as it was becoming somewhat monotonous, 

 I whispered to Ramazan that I was going to shoot, and, follow- 

 ing his advice, fired at the wounded one, planting a bullet 

 behind her shoulder. The result was rather curious : she 

 dashed at her opponent and attacked him with great fury, this 

 being quite their best 'round,' lasting more than a minute, 

 until my shot began to take effect on her, and she had to 

 give way to the now superior strength of the bull. As the cow 

 stood this time with her head held high, snorting blood from 

 her nostrils, she swayed from side to side and then dropped 

 over dead. 



The bull went up and stood over her, prodding her in the 

 stomach with his horn, offering me a good broadside shot, which 

 I took, placing a bullet in his shoulder. From his subsequent 

 behaviour one might have imagined that he thought that the 

 defunct cow was the cause of his discomfort, for nothing could 

 have exceeded the furious way in which he attacked her. 

 He dashed at her as she lay on her side, and dug with extra- 

 ordinary rapidity at her between the forelegs, when I put an 

 end to his ferocity with a bullet in his neck, which dropped 

 him. On going up I found him lying with his head under the 

 uppermost foreleg of the cow, but with the exception of a small 

 jagged wound in her armpit, neither of them bore traces of their 

 combat, beyond innumerable white-looking surface scratches on 



