THE PASSING OF THE WILD 319 



Drakensberg, and killing every animal they 

 came across. Nor, as will have been gathered 

 from Major Stevenson-Hamilton's remarks on 

 the subject, can the part played by the native 

 in the story of African game be ignored. 

 Selous also regards the native in possession of 

 firearms as the worst offender of all, and he 

 ought to know. Kind people at home, with a 

 mania for championing their coloured brothers, 

 insist that the native should on no account be 

 hindered from killing wild animals that provide 

 meat for his larder. At first sight, this plea 

 looks reasonable, but the truth of the matter 

 is that most of the natives who shoot game 

 are paid for their services. Not one of the 

 great settled tribes of the Matabele country 

 between the Zambesi and Limpopo are regular 

 meat-eaters. They do not even kill their own 

 cattle for food, though they eat all that die 

 from natural causes, and, if these are too long 

 dying, the native would kill an occasional 

 antelope or buffalo with his own primitive 

 weapons, which are therefore sufficient for his 

 domestic purposes. The possession of a gun 

 or rifle merely enables him to do this with less 

 exertion and in shorter time, and there is no 

 object in encouraging laziness in native races 

 for whom time has no value. The destructive 

 powers of armed natives are sufficiently proved, 

 if such evidence were needed, by the continued 



