chap. vii. HUNTING WITH DOGS. 323 



they went like lightning, the reed-buck taking great 

 bounds over the long grass which so much impeded his 

 pursuers. I made for a ca»bbage-tree close by, and climbing 

 up as far as I could, watched the chase, while my boy ran 

 in the direction which he thought they would take. The 

 hounds made nothing of it at first from the length of the 

 grass. Indeed, as the buck fairly got the steam up they 

 rather lost, until they reached a level mile of the burnt 

 ground, over which they really seemed to fly, the black 

 one drawing in closer and closer, and the greyhound 

 losing nothing ; so that the chase was fain to wheel sharp 

 to the right, and make for a wet bottom not far off, 

 where, not many minutes after, I heard the hounds bay- 

 ing. I then got down and went towards the sound, find- 

 ing on my arrival that my boy had come up and killed it 

 — the united efforts of both hounds only bringing the 

 animal to its knees, while in the scuffle the greyhound 

 had got a deepish scratch on her haunch. 



After getting men to carry it home, I returned to the 

 hunting party, where in an hour or two Usipingo caught a 

 couple of duikers. One rather curious incident happened. 

 The men were just finishing a beat, and were consequently 

 almost touching one another all round the circle, when a 

 large reed-buck doe rose from some rushes, and probably 

 not seeing, although she had heard the people, cantered 

 quietly off until she came to those opposite. Here she 

 was received with a storm of spears, some of which no 

 doubt struck, if they did not hurt her, while all the curs 

 came yelping up. Bolting round, she made off at full 

 speed in the opposite direction until she reached our side 

 of the circle, when, noticing the men, she pulled up for a 



