130 A MEDLEY OF SPORT 



lating like so many great baboons. The roll being called, 

 and only two of the Kaffirs found missing (a mere detail), 

 the guns formed in groups under the shade of the odorous 

 forest -trees while the natives gathered the slain. 



" We shall get among the guinea-fowl next beat, and 

 some of you will have hot barrels to your guns, I'll 

 warrant," quoth Jan Vandevord, between the great 

 puifs of rank Boer tobacco smoke which he blew from 

 hirsute mouth and nostrils, tainting the air with an aroma 

 like that of burning rags for yards around. Ninety and 

 odd hares (there ought to have been double that number), 

 and three steinbok, were gathered as the result of the 

 drive, and the game having been covered with leafy 

 boughs of pungent eucalyptus as a precaution against 

 the ravages of aasvogels (Egyptian vultures) and other 

 marauders, winged and furred, preparations for the next 

 beat were made. 



Our host, anxious to show his rooinek guests good 

 sport, placed the guns round the sides and end of the 

 remaining belt of covert, which was much more narrow 

 than before, and then returned to baas the beaters, and 

 see that they worked in some sort of order. The wary 

 guinea-fowl can, probably, give any other species of 

 feathered game under the sun points in both cunning 

 and running, and, unless driven systematically, ninety 

 out of every hundred guinea-fowl found in covert will 

 break back, or otherwise escape both guns and beaters. 



There was not nearly so much noise among the 

 Kaffirs during the second beat of the big plantation. 



