THE AFRICAN BUFFALO 233, 
even flinched. Hastily jamming in another cartridge in order 
to have one in reserve in case he should charge, I again fired 
i at his shoulder, and he dropped as if struck by lightning ; 
_ he fell so quickly that I did not see him fall. He was, 
: however, not dead, as I could see his side heaving above 
_ the top of the grass as he lay. By this time the gun- 
bearers had come up, followed shortly afterwards by the 
rest of the men, who had come on when they had heard 
the first two shots, and who, on seeing that the beast was 
down, ran up like a pack of wolves to ‘chinja’ it—ie. to cut 
its throat. Knowing, however, that it was not dead, I ran 
forward and shouted to them not to go near; but they were 
too excited to pay heed to my warning, and were standing all 
: round it, when, after a desperate effort to regain its legs, it 
: jumped up, the men flying in all directions. Catching sight of 
my second gun-bearer, who had also gone up to it, and who at 
ie a RF el al Oe A aE 
é the time was carrying my 4-bore rifle, it went straight for him. 
A The man bolted, and, finding that the buffalo was close upon 
him, dropped the rifle—the stock of which was snapped short 
off at the grip by the buffalo treading on it—and ran for dear 
life, the beast being within a few inches of him, and giving 
vent to a furious grunt at each step. For some little time I 
was unable to shoot, as the rest of the men were scattered and 
dodging about between myself and the buffalo, so I shouted to 
the gun-bearer to run round towards me, which he did, and I 
was able to fire, but the 8-bore bullet had apparently no effect 
on the infuriated beast. At the same moment the man 
doubled and ran straight away from me, making for a small 
tree about too yards off, twisting and turning as he ran, but 
the buffalo still stuck close to him and doubled as quickly as 
_. the man did. All this time I was tearing along in pursuit, 
hoping to get a shot, but dared not fire for fear of hitting the 
_ man, who was dodging about from side to side, and I was 
_ some 60 yards behind when they reached the tree. This the 
__ man endeavoured to catch hold of so as to swing himself round, 
_ but he was going so fast that the impetus caused his hand 
