SOME NATURAL HISTORY 259 



hurried back, and there lay a little oribi only a few 

 hours old and with big, wondering eyes that looked 

 gravely up at me as I bent over it. It was plenty 

 old enough to run and could easily have leaped 

 away, but there it lay as tight as if nothing in the 

 world could make it budge. 



The whole thing was as plain as could be. It was 

 acting under instructions. I could almost hear the 

 mother of the oribi tell the little one when it heard 

 us coming to lay perfectly quiet and not to move 

 the least bit until she came back. Then mamma hur- 

 ried away to cover. The little oribi remembered his 

 instructions and followed them out to the letter. Its 

 mamma had told it not to move and it hadn't. We 

 looked at it a little while and then said good-by and 

 went our way. Some place near by an anxious 

 mother oribi was watching us with her heart in her 

 mouth, no doubt, and I'm sure that we had not gone 

 many yards before she was back to see what had 

 happened to the little one. It was quite an exciting 

 adventure for the little oribi and quite incompre- 

 hensible to the mother that he had emerged from 

 the peril so safely. 



Another night I was going out to watch for 

 lions. A bait had been placed near the tree where I 

 was stationed and I had some hopes of seeing, if 

 not killing, a lion. Night had already fallen, but 

 there was still a trace of twilight in the air as I 

 walked through the low scrub trees that lay between 

 our camp and the tree, a mile and a half away. As 

 I was walking along I heard a loud screaming to 



