AN AFRICAN RACE - COURSE. 247 



It is curious how soon a white man's approach causes 

 alarm to the wild animals of Africa. Whilst a Kaffir 

 can pass about almost unnoticed, the former is at once 

 a cause of terror. 



I entered the ravine, and by shouting and firing a shot 

 scattered the herd of buffaloes in a few minutes; I did 

 not get close to them in the ravine, but saw them topping 

 the ridge outside. 



I was soon after them : the country was undulating, with 

 a little bush here and there. I yelled at the troop MS 

 they galloped along huddled together, and turned them 

 from a thick patch of bush, for which they were making, 

 into a large flat open plain with short springy turf. Here 

 is the Epsom of Africa ; a lawn of twenty-five miles, flat 

 as a billiard-table is the course, the match is p.p., the 

 parties are a stout little thirteen hands high pony with 

 eleven stone on his back, and a bull-buffalo sixteen hands 

 high with a feather weight. Now what are the odds who 

 will bet two to one on the buffalo ? No takers ! An even 

 bet I name the winner. What is the opinion of the jackal, 

 I wonder, who is peeping over the shoulders of his young 

 family from out of the hole that has been his residence 

 since the ant-bear who built it was killed last year by a 

 leopard ? What will the Bushman lay against the inthumba 

 (buffalo) being dropped in the first two miles ? This fellow 

 does not care much which is the winner, he only wishes 

 to see one or the other killed. From his hiding-place 

 in the rock's crannies, he watches the race with great 

 excitement. If the buffalo is killed, he is sure to fall in 

 for a share of the meat. If the white man breaks his neck 



