A DAY ON THE VELDT 



weakening antelope, which finally came to a standstill with 

 outspread legs and drooping head. I was surprised to notice 

 that it had been struck by three bullets — one through the 

 lungs, one through the abdomen, and a third breaking a hind 

 leg near the body. Yet it had given me an almost prostrating 

 chase of two miles in the midday sun. The Swahilis, spying 

 both myself and the antelope at a standstill, came on wdth yells 

 of joy and dispatched the hartebeest in the manner enjoined 

 by the Mohammedan belief, which requires that the throat of 

 the animal be cut by a true believer while it still breathes, in 

 order to insure religiously edible meat. The horns of this bull 

 each measured approximately fourteen inches around the 

 curve and eight inches in circumference at the base, with a 

 spread of ten inches between the tips of the two horns. 



On the long, dusty tramp to the shelter of the tents we 

 passed over a portion of the plain which had recently been 

 burnt over by grass fires. Here the heat of the midday sun 

 reflected from the blackened ground was unbearable, and the 

 dust arose in suffocating black clouds. Owing to the heat-waves, 

 motionless game at a distance on this blackened plain seemed 

 to be in motion. Around the borders of this burnt country 

 were scattered numbers of large white storks {Ciconia alba) 

 industriously feeding upon the singed insects which had escaped 

 from the burning grass. 



On the equator during the heat of the day the traveller is 

 supposed to recline in the shade of a tent; but swarms of flies, 

 attracted to a hunting-camp by the scent of meat, make life 

 almost unbearable for the weary sportsman. In this part of 

 Africa insects are always in evidence, and it is a continual battle 

 between the traveller and hosts of crawling, hopping, and flying 

 pests. Next to the flies, the greatest pests of the countr>^ are 

 the various kinds of ants. Some of these reside in the food the 

 traveller eats ; others get into his tin boxes and play havoc with 

 spare clothing and perishable belongings ; and he cannot even sit 



