Contradictory Reports 165 



Only you can recognise spoor. Fine sportsmen you 

 are ! " 



First group, with disdain " Your tracks are not 

 to-day's : they are yesterday's. That is all ! " 



Second group " What ! not to-day's ? They are 

 this very morning's." (Sensation.) 



"Very well, now," I say. " Tambarika, see who's 

 right." 



Third group "The lion drank last night for the 

 third time almost at the same place. He killed in 

 the vicinity a waterbuck which the vultures finished 

 this morning. We have seen an enormous palapala 

 (sable antelope), extraordinary. . . ." 



I know how much to accept of the blacks' ex- 

 aggerated stories. I put down everything which 

 precedes, according to my daily custom, in one of my 

 notebooks. During the afternoon Tambarika returns 

 with his report. The first group is right the tracks 

 are of the previous day. The second group is hooted, 

 called azimba (savage), and excites general laughter, 

 especially, as always happens, on the part of those 

 who are incapable of distinguishing whether a track 

 is a day or a fortnight old. The day in question, for 

 example, I decide to try my luck at the pool where 

 the lion has drunk three times in succession. Un- 

 fortunately, he does not return. 



The habits of the lion and the rhinoceros are not 

 the same : the former will drink at the same place for 

 a long time ; the latter will never visit a pool more 

 than once or twice in succession if it has another 

 drinking-place. 



