LAKE RUDOLPH 277 



being an altogether dignified one in which to receive, at close 

 quarters, so august a visitor ; so I gave a slight whistle between 

 my teeth. He stood still, and held his head well up with his 

 ears cocked, looking hard towards me and exposing his breast. 

 I at once, being in readiness, gave him a bullet in the throat, 

 just above the chest (the chest itself is too low to aim for a 

 front shot), and, as he swung round and started off, another in 

 the ribs. He galloped about fifty yards, just managed to get 

 through a little gully, though his action was getting laboured, 

 and on to the stony farther bank, where he stood for a second, 

 half turned round, and toppled over on to his side ; then kicked 

 his legs into the air a couple of times, and, after a squeal, lay 

 still. Pice was soon smelling at his nose, and, on my getting 

 up to him, though his little eye still blinked, he breathed no 

 more. Even half a minute or so later, on putting my finger to 

 it the eyelid winked again ; but it was only the muscles 

 working automatically, for he was dead. Cutting him up 

 delayed us an hour and a half; but it was well worth it. 

 He was fat, and the men loaded themselves in great glee 

 with the meat (much beloved of Swahili) on top of their 

 burdens — one would have thought to the breaking point, 

 and so they would have said, had it not been to fill, first 

 their pots, and then their own stomachs. 



Before allowing him to be touched I had examined him 

 critically, and carefully measured him with my tape-line, and, 

 though I could detect no structural difference whatever, he 

 certainly was, although evidently a fully mature bull, so much 

 smaller than the average " faro " of farther south that on 

 comparing his measurements with those of my large El Gereh 

 specimen he seemed cjuite a pygmy.^ I hid his whole head 

 under a heap of stones. The horns were not long. P'ortu- 

 nately it was rather cloudy with a nice breeze, so that we did 

 not feel the heat as usual, and in spite of this delay and 



' These measurements, together with others, will be found in the table gi\en on 

 page 425. 



