VARIOUS. 79 



benefit. In fact, he plays the royal highness part. His 

 courage is heightened by pride, and by the consciousness 

 that he is the white man amongst the party. 



The native who accompanies him has to incur almost 

 as much risk as his master, and his sole reward is the 

 pleasure of assisting to procure sport, not the partici- 

 pating in it. 



Umkotyisa presented me with a large pot of native 

 beer, and gave me all the news of the district. We had 

 a long confabulation on matters in general and on sport 

 in particular. He had been an elephant hunter in the 

 old days, and related some curious anecdotes. 



" Do you see this small river on which you are now 

 encamped ? " he said. " Well, I once had a narrow 

 squeak of my life at a spot about two miles lower down 

 it. I wounded an elephant cow and followed her along 

 this rivulet. I came upon her standing almost in the 

 open at about a hundred yards from the bank. She was 

 very sick, and I went up to give her a final shot. She 

 wheeled round, and pursued me with uplifted trunk and 

 shrieking fearfully. I fled for the rivulet, which at that 

 place forms pools. Before I could reach it she was upon 

 me. I dodged her, and again she followed me and 

 overtook me. I fell down, and she ran right over me. 

 The air seemed full of her legs, but I escaped bein^ 

 trodden upon. I jumped up and made a desperate effort 

 to reach the river, and just managed to take a header 

 into a pool when she was within a few feet of me. I 

 dived, and came up under the bank a little lower down 

 stream. She ran up and down trumpeting for some 

 minutes and finally walked off. I let her alone, but 

 followed her up next day and found her dead." 



Another story he told me impressed itself on my 



