i2 4 THE LAND OF THE LION 



spoils the trip for yourself, and most probably for your 

 companion, if you are not alone. 



What I have said refers to the highly dangerous animals 

 every hunter wants to bag. But caution is necessary in 

 approaching all wounded game. Even the most pacific 

 beasts are perpetually defending themselves by guile or 

 force from predatory beasts. The African antelopes are 

 on the watch from late evening till daylight. Their horns 

 and hoofs are formidable instruments, offensive and de- 

 fensive. The stroke they can deliver is so lightning-like 

 in its quickness that no one who has not seen it could 

 realize it. 



The oryx, the sturdy and keen horned bushbuck, 

 the hartebeast or kongoni, and, above all, the splendid 

 waterbuck, will on occasion, turn sharply on the foe. 

 Many a careless sportsman has been wounded, one I 

 know of killed, by wounded waterbuck. The only acci- 

 dent I have met with, befell me from one of these ante- 

 lopes, and I had no one but myself to blame. It was my 

 first visit to Africa. I was coming back toward Nairobi 

 from a three weeks' unsuccessful search for a lion. I 

 was using a little six-pound Mannlicher rifle, I am very fond 

 of, and which I always carry for its lightness. We (I had 

 a good professional hunter with me at that time) were in a 

 country where the Sing Sing waterbuck was to be found, 

 a different species from the common waterbuck, and I 

 had not yet secured a specimen. So seeing a waterbuck's 

 head through a bush, not more than eighty yards away, 

 I shot at it with the little gun, and it fell to the shot like a 

 stone. On going up, there it lay full length on the ground. 

 The bullet had entered the forehead, just at the inner side 

 of the eye, and did not kill instantly, though the poor beast 

 seemed just gone. I told my gunbearer to finish it with 

 the knife. He was a cowardly fellow (though on this 

 occasion he showed his sense) and refused point blank 



