THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 127 



was sighted in the deep grass about one hundred yards from the 

 river. As meat was scarce, Baker had the boats run to bank, 

 and as the buffalo's head appeared above the grass he fired, and 

 the animal dropped as if struck dead. Several of the men ran 

 pell-mell after it, and as the beast still appeared to be dead, 

 instead of falling to at once and cutting it up, they danced about 

 it in savage delight, one holding its tail while another danced on 

 the body brandishing his knife. Suddenly the buffalo jumped 

 up, scattered the blacks, and ran off into a morass, where it fell 

 again. The boats tied up for the night, and on the following 

 morning the groans of the wounded animal could plainly be 

 heard. About forty of the men now took their guns and waded 

 knee-deep through mud, water and high grass in search of it. 

 One hour after Baker heard shouting and shooting, which lasted 

 fully twenty minutes ; by aid of the telescope he could see a 

 crowd of his men standing on an ant-hill three hundred yards 

 distant, from which point they were still shooting at some indis- 

 tinguishable object. The death-howl then followed, and the men 

 were seen to rush down from their secure position, and directly 

 afterward returned to the boats, carrying the dead and mangled 

 body of Sali Achmet, Baker's most valuable man. It transpired 

 that this man had been attacked by the wounded buffalo and 

 killed in sight of his comrades, who were too cowardly to render 

 him any assistance. The poor fellow was horribly mangled, and, 

 as usual with buffaloes, the furious beast had not rested content 

 until it pounded the breath out of the body, which was found 

 imbedded and trampled so tightly in the mud that only a portion 

 of the head appeared above the marsh. 



In relating the story to Baker, the men stated that three men 

 were with Sali when the buffalo charged him, but that the 

 cowards bolted without firing a gun, and took position on an ant- 

 hill, from which they saw their comrade tossed into the air and 

 heard his distressing cries for help without responding. This 

 was a fair sample of the courage of the native Africans, who 

 exalt their bravery when danger is not near, but who nju like 

 sheep at the first intimation of peril. 



