

,'.'.^Q\\i'':V',\ :/;/,,/ ON SAFAKI 



watching, till presently we began to be touched with 

 a gradual sense of wonder at their curious inaction — 

 why should five herds all be standing so precisely alike, 

 neither feeding nor moving ? What small desultory 

 movements occurred appeared to be limited to the 

 hartebeests which accompanied each troop. There 

 seemed to be a kind of sorting movement afoot. This 

 alone does not seem to be a very important observation ; 

 yet it proved, none the less, to be the key to the whole 

 secret of securing them. 



" The wildebeest drink twice daily — at sunrise and 

 sunset ; but the hartebeest being the keener-sighted of 

 the two, the wildebeests emj^loy these to pilot them- 

 selves past any hidden dangers that may lurk between 

 the ujDlands and the water below. This acknowledged 

 superiority — the testimony of the greater ajjimal to- 

 wards the less — leads in a way to the general undoing 

 of the whole scheme. 



" The process of making-up the watering-parties is 

 tedious, but at length gradually completed. Then the 

 kongoni steps out ahead, examining the lay of the land 

 and scrutinising every visible feature. As he advances, 

 his confidence increases, and with it a fatal pride of 

 place. He has made himself confident — unduly con- 

 fident — of the safety of his immediate vicinity, as with 

 head erect and muzzle extended he moves proudly 

 forward, the thirsty wildebeests pressing nearer and 

 nearer on his flank as the water is approached. No 

 ' monarch of the glen ' exceeds him then in his lordly 

 bearing, and the astonished hunter lies spellbound at 

 the spectacle. The shepherded wildebeests lumber along 

 behind, all muzzles down — what a study in contrasts ! 



" Under no other circumstances would a hunter 

 now remain unobserved — indeed, it mav be added that 

 under no other could he have attained a dominatmg 

 position. 



" Once having observed the line a pilot-kongoni is 

 about to take, that position must be reached ; and the 

 long delay of the game in ' sorting-out ' allows time 



