Sporting Trips of a Subaltern 



in the bush. They were used to creeping about 

 in the bush, naked, except for a loin-cloth, 

 their feet even bare, with their bows and 

 quivers of poisoned arrows, and getting right 

 up to their quarry. There is a large toucan 

 that inhabits these wastes with a huge head and 

 curved beak these birds make a considerable 

 rustling in the bush and the Bariba hunter 

 has a wooden imitation of the head and neck, 

 which he straps across his forehead ; then, bending 

 in the grass, he wags his head up and down to 

 imitate the motions of a bird feeding. The buck, 

 hearing a rustle, looks up, and lo ! it's only a 

 toucan, till suddenly he feels the arrow loosed 

 from a powerful bow at a range inside of the 

 length of a cricket pitch. 



Neither of our hunters knew anything much 

 about a rifle, and they always thought we were 

 mad to try shots at fifty or more yards; but 

 I'm glad to say they " learnt a bit " before they 

 left us. My soldier-hunter, Ajala, used to come 

 out with me at first, but the Bariba looks upon 

 the Yoruba as a clown in the bush, and to 

 Ajala's great chagrin he had to be temporarily 

 dropped. 



On March 5 Abadie opened proceedings 

 with a grand cobus kob carrying a 16-inch head. 



That afternoon I saw three fine water-buck ; 

 they were quite 150 yards away, and nearly 



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