ANTELOPES 287 



was well adapted. About 300 yards from the foot of the earth 

 boil there was a deep, dry watercourse, and it was through the 

 passage between the two that I decided to drive everything if 

 possible. About half-way across there were several thorn-trees 

 and a few low ant-heaps which commanded the whole of the 

 passage. 



After directing the beaters to work round in a circuit, to 

 get well to windward of the game, and telling off two other 

 men to act as ' stops' on the other side of the ' boil,' I took up 

 my position on one of the ant-heaps, and lay flat on the sloping 

 side, sufficiently near the top to enable me to look over it. 

 Ramazan, my gun-bearer, lay at the foot of it. The first beasts 

 to appear were the five giraffes, which had seen the beaters 

 long before any of the other game could do so, and came 

 striding along in their stately fashion, stopping every now and 

 again to have a look round. The old bull was an enormous 

 beast, and one of the darkest in colour I have ever seen. When 

 just level with me, and about eighty yards off, as there was still no 

 other game in sight, I could not resist the temptation of startling 

 them, as they seemed to be taking things so easily, and there- 

 fore jumped up and showed myself, shouting as I did so, 

 1 Hi ! Yambo ! ' (a Swahili salutation), after which they went off 

 at a gallop, with their tails screwed up, their long necks 

 swaying backwards and forwards at each stride, and were soon 

 lost to view in a cloud of black dust. Shortly after this little 

 interlude I saw a dense cloud of dust rising in the distance to 

 windward of me, heard a low rumbling noise from the same 

 direction, and knew at once that the beaters had begun their 

 work. Several zebras which stood out well against the dark 

 background came cantering along, together with a few harte- 

 beests, but I soon lost sight of these, as they shortly afterwards 

 pulled up, and the clouds of dust drifting before the wind 

 obscured them from my view. I began to fear I should be 

 unable to see anything, but as the game approached, I could 

 distinguish several zebras and hartebeests, and could see them 

 fairly well when about 100 yards off, some of them even walking 



