538 THE AFRICAN BUFFALO. 



with his horns, and tossed him into the air with such force 

 that his body fell dreadfully mangled into a lofty cleft of the 

 tree. After running round the tree once or twice, seemingly in 

 search of the man, the buffalo sank on his knees exhausted by 

 loss of blood. The rest of the party, then recovering from their 

 confusion, came up and killed the animal, though too late to 

 save their comrade, whose lifeless body was hanging in the tree. 

 Thunberg having encountered an enormous bull buffalo in 

 a deep thicket near the Koukouma river, it killed two of the 

 horses of his party on the spot ; and the naturalist and two of 

 his companions, being next pursued by it, only escaped by 

 climbing up some tall trees, in which they remainded till their 

 savage assailant had departed. 



Sparrman says, that the buffalo " is wont to hide himself 

 among the trees, till somebody happens to come very near 

 him, when he rushes out at once into the road, and sometimes 

 attacks them." This, however, we may presume, is not the 

 habit of the species, but the vicious conduct of some old or 

 supernumerary bull that has been expelled from the herd. What 

 we know of the habits of the elephant and of the zubr, supports 

 this view of the matter, which is further confirmed by a remark 

 of the Hottentots, who assured Thunberg that they had more 

 than once observed one solitary buffalo haunt a wood, after 

 he had been driven away from his herd by the other buffaloes, 

 and obliged to live alone j but these people attributed his banish- 

 ment from good society to the spitefulness of his nature. I 

 would rather believe that such solitary individuals are the 

 victims of mental aberration, idiocy or lunacy, than suppose 

 that any gregarious wild animal has naturally such a vast deal 

 of spitefulness in him that he is not to be endured among his 

 fellows. Indeed, among sheep and among common fowls, an 

 apparent loss of the natural faculties has been noticed, and the 

 victims of it have wandered away from their species. 



" It has been remarked," says Sparrman, " that not content 

 with throwing and killing the person whom he attacks, the 

 buffalo stands over him afterwards in order to trample upon 



