Northern Nigeria 



herd of roan had been viewed within a day's ride, 

 close to a small village. A hunter came in with 

 the report, and it was arranged that he (Welch) 

 should ride out on a certain day and be met by 

 the hunter on the track close to the village. The 

 hunter met him all right, but carrying the head 

 of a freshly killed roan, which he had bagged with 

 a poisoned arrow to save the white man trouble ! 

 Of course it was cut off in such a manner as to 

 be useless as a trophy, even had Welch cared to 

 keep it; but the Bariba was quite pleased with 

 himself, and had evidently done his best, as he 

 thought; so Welch saw the comic side of the 

 affair, and let him off with a caution. 



This was always a trouble in Borgu; the 

 natives have regular professional hunters, and do 

 not look upon it as a very swell profession. No 

 " big " man will ever bother to hunt, and they 

 were a long time before they could believe we 

 really wanted to toil about in the bush for the 

 fun of the thing, when we could always get meat 

 in the market. At first, indeed, they suspected 

 there was some deep purpose behind it, and 

 actually put impediments in our way, but even- 

 tually we somewhat changed the fashion, and 

 before I left Kiama I took the king himself out 

 with me once. He rode, I remember, an ambling 

 steed, and had a string of nearly nude wives 

 running in single file behind him, carrying large 



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