THE MAARIFF AND MEH&DEHET. 97 



we arrived at the summit of another, when the distance 

 would be diminished by a gallop, until, wearied out, we 

 at last found the poor beast lying down in the bottom, of 

 a valley to rest, though not to escape from the keen eye 

 of Essafi ; and then, creeping within twenty yards of him, 

 a ball from my eight-bore went right through his body, 

 and so brought to a close this exciting hunt. When 

 Vivian and myself compared notes about our respective 

 maariffs, we found a distinct difference in the slope of 

 the horns, a difficulty which Mohamed (his hunter) tried 

 to explain away by saying that maariffs' horns sloped 

 both ways. This, however, was not good enough for 

 even our limited knowledge of the various species, so 

 Essafi was consulted, and he at once said that Vivian's 

 antelope was a mehedehet ; and upon a more careful ex- 

 amination of Baker's illustrations, it was very clear that 

 such was the case. Both have annulated horns, but those 

 of the mehedehet curve outwards as well as backwards, and 

 then forwards ; and in this specimen are twenty-six inches 

 long and seventeen and a half between the tips ; whereas 

 the horns of the maariff curve gradually backwards, and 

 with a very slight inclination outwards so slight in 

 this specimen, that though twenty-six and a half inches 

 long, they are only eight inches apart at the tips, the 

 widest point ; then also, whilst in the one the concavity 

 is forwards, in the other it faces backwards, and he 



H 



