THE ROAN ANTELOPE 101 



maned, right down to the withers. It is this stiff up- 

 standing mane (which in an old bull exceeds six inches 

 in vertical height), combined with their high withers and 

 immensely thick neck, that gives roan their massive and 

 imposing appearance hence also their Arabic name 

 Abu Uruf ( = " Father of the mane"). 



The height at shoulder of this bull I made one inch 

 short of 5 feet straight ; the cow lay awkwardly to 

 measure, but was certainly 6 to 8 inches less. 



Their horns, heavily ringed, were stained deep Indian 

 red probably from rubbing on the mimosa- bark and 

 measured : bull 31^ inches by 8| in basal circumference ; 

 cow 22 inches by 61 at base. 



On the homeward march, heavily-laden, we walked 

 openly past a herd of tiang within easy shot. The open 

 or thinly-bushed country hereabouts swarms with these 

 antelopes, and, on one occasion, I saw what I believe to 

 have been an almost equally big troop of roan. When first 

 descried, these animals were standing inside a fringe of 

 forest, thirty or forty, I then thought. But on our 

 attempting to cross the open prairie that intervened, 

 the whole forest seemed amove. By the clouds of dust 

 raised and the breadth occupied thereby, I judged 

 there must have been well over a hundred animals. 

 Possibly, however, some few of the troop may have 

 been tiang. 



Besides the above game, we saw here daily an odd 

 gazelle or two and constantly struck spoor of lion, 

 giraffe, and twice of buffalo. One morning we came on 

 a foot-thick heglig-tree {Balanites egyptiaca] broken oft 

 short by elephants, which had feasted on its bitter- 

 sweet, date-like fruit (called lalob by natives), scatter- 

 ing the rest far and wide. To me the fracture looked 

 new ; but Baraka declared that the spoor was some 

 days old. 



