76 TALES OF A NOMAD. 



I never saw so much game of the kind before in my life 

 as there was at Umkotyisa's. The grass had been lately 

 burned and was again shooting up, and the game had 

 gathered from all quarters. The country was rather too 

 open for very successful stalking, but go in what direction 

 you would, you could not fail to come upon troop after 

 troop of game. My lowest bag was six head, and my 

 highest, fourteen head in a day. I put aside the heavy 

 rifle and used the express, as the shooting was all at 

 light game and at considerable ranges. 



An amusing thing happened. A nephew of Um- 

 kotyisa was exceedingly anxious to be allowed to hunt 

 for me. As the young fellow seemed very keen, and as 

 I am a bad hand at rejecting importunity, I lent him an 

 old single-barrelled No. 8 bore, which looked as though 

 it had once constituted part of the armament of Noah's 

 ark. He was delighted. He put in a young handful of 

 powder and about a quarter of a newspaper on top of it, 

 and finally a ball, and then rammed the whole charge 

 tightly down. 



He went off, evidently resolved to do or die. 



He returned in the evening in a woeful plight. His 

 nose and mouth were split, and his face was swollen up 

 like a balloon. 



He approached me and squatting down on the ground 

 announced that he had no talent for hunting, and would 

 return home the following morning. 



I said, " Good gracious ! what have you done to your 

 face ? " And he replied as follows : 



" A little after noon I found the tracks of elands. I 

 followed them up until I came upon them feeding. 

 There was a gully by which I could conveniently ap- 

 proach them, so I crawled along this until I was close 



