Sporting Trips of a Subaltern 



been here in numbers. I saw the tracks of four- 

 teen coming down abreast to drink at one water- 

 hole close to camp. These Nigerian elephants 

 seem, according to all information I could gain, 

 to move in a regular orbit : they come through 

 Borgu to the Yoruba country, cross the Niger 

 south of Lokoja, then up by the Benoui to Lake 

 Chad, through the Northern Haussa territories 

 and down to Borgu again. There were none in 

 Borgu at this time. 



For three or four days we had delightful hunt- 

 ing from this camp kob, water-buck, hartebeest, 

 duiker, oribi, wart-hog, and last, but not least, 

 roan being added to the bag. Much of the meat 

 we smoked and sent by messengers to our friend 

 the King of Kiama. None of our men were up to 

 skinning a head in such a manner as to be fit for 

 setting up as a trophy, so we had to waste a good 

 many precious hours of daylight doing the job 

 ourselves. 



A propos of this, I remember rather a 

 comic incident. My Yoruba soldier, Ajala, was 

 " under instruction" as a skinner, and one after- 

 noon I left him in camp with rather an indifferent 

 duiker head to see what he could make of it by 

 himself. I returned to camp at dusk, after a hard 

 day, and presently my interpreter boy came and 

 said, " Ajala say him head too much bad." 

 Remembering the duiker, and being tired and 



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