At Mpeseni 105 



day the absence of leaves arid of shade makes the heat 

 overwhelming. This is the time for hunting ante- 

 lopes. 



Having, therefore, hunted the elephant and the 

 rhinoceros during the rainy reason, I prepared during 

 the dry season to collect for the Paris Museum, prefer- 

 ably antelopes and small animals. As seen, you can 

 succeed or fail completely according to the time chosen 

 for such or such sport. One may say that elephant- 

 hunting during the dry season is only accidental. 

 Excessively toilsome is it, too, the animal only travel- 

 ling at night and early in the morning ; it is during 

 the heat of the day, when it is resting, that its 

 track must be followed. It will be seen that we 

 had a few examples of this ; but I will not antici- 

 pate. I return to the Mpeseni country at the end of 

 the rainy season, and at a time when it is covered 

 with grass, no longer green but half dry and rustling, 

 where I have no great hope of success as far as 

 pachydermata are concerned. 



After exchanging presents and compliments with 

 Samba Mropa, one of King Mpeseni's ministers, whose 

 residence is near, I camp on the banks of a small 

 stream, the Ntsatso, which flows into the Luiya. Our 

 stay in this district opens with a period of the most 

 abject failure, during which my men eat all my 

 sardines, for I am obliged to give them something in 

 place of meat. I must ask the reader to excuse my 

 passing over these few days of bad luck 1 which is 



1 Some friends reproached me, upon the publication of Mes Grandest 

 Ckasses, for having mentioned successes in my narratives without speak- 



