68 ANIMAL LIFE IN AFRICA 



conclusions vary according to the experiences of the in- 

 dividual. Personally I have had a good deal to do with 

 the preserved herd in the Game Reserve, and though 

 often walking close to, and in fact practically amongst 

 them, never found them to betray any feeling other than 

 curiosity. When wounded and followed up, a buffalo 

 is of course a dangerous creature to take liberties with. 

 He is extraordinarily tough, and probably more deter- 

 mined and plucky than any other wild beast except the 

 little ratel ; so that when he does charge, the sportsman 

 must make up his mind for a fight to a finish. 



A wounded buffalo will hunt a fugitive as a terrier 

 does a rat. Animals smarting from old wounds are as 

 dangerous as those newly injured by the hunter himself. 

 An instance of this occurred in the Sudan last year. 

 A sportsman was following up an elephant, and had just 

 fired several shots, when, hearing a couple of grunts on 

 his right, he swung round in time to see a big bull buffalo 

 coming straight at him through the long grass. For- 

 tunately he retained his presence of mind, and dropped 

 the beast with a lucky bullet from the heavy rifle he was 

 carrying. On examination it was found to have a round 

 lead ball lodged in one jaw, where an abscess had formed ; 

 the tip of one horn was shot away ; and, most remarkable 

 of all, the iron head of a spear was firmly embedded in 

 the frontal boss of the horns. Some native attendants, 

 who had been sent out to " spy " for the elephant, 

 reported that the buffalo had charged and " treed " them, 

 standing sentry underneath, until the reports of the rifle 

 were heard, when it immediately left them and headed 

 straight in that direction. I saw this head with the 

 embedded spear, myself, when at Mongalla in December. 

 How the spear got there nobody knew, but it seems 

 likely that it had been weighted, and set in the form of 



