NORTH-WESTERN RHODESIA 31 



sharp gallop. With him tear the other bulls, 

 the cows and the little members of the herd, but 

 only for a hundred yards or so, for presently the 

 whole troop turn round again and curiously 

 gaze at the breakers of their morning peace. 



The whole sky is now flooded in glory. Away 

 on the edge of the bush a number of ungainly 

 Lichtenstein's hartebeeste are feeding, and 

 between them and the roan are a few sable 

 antelope cows. The old sable bull you will now 

 see is running with the roan; a few minutes 

 earlier the light was not sufficient to enable one 

 to determine his handsome black form and great, 

 sweeping horns. Brighter and brighter becomes 

 the sky, the " dambo " takes on its life of day, 

 birds of few notes fly and twit across the little 

 river, the buck all approach the fringe of the bush, 

 the sun peeps over the tops of the forest land to 

 gaze once more on the fair picture of Africa, 

 natural and wild as she has ever been, unsullied 

 by the taint of civilized man; another day has 

 come to bathe earth and sky and plain and 

 forest in the rich glow of the African sun. 



The heirs to Nature's wonders are those who 

 wander with her through the wilds. To my mind 

 such a scene as I have attempted to describe in 

 the foregoing is worth all the masterpieces of 

 drama and opera performed in all the great 

 theatres of Europe. All the world's a stage, 

 'tis said. Nature's scenery was painted by God, 

 staged on the magnificent scale of Creation before 

 puny man belittled the glory of the effort, and 

 there are no actors on the stage of Nature. 

 They are the real exponents of unaffected life 

 without its rehearsals, without the narrow wings 

 of modern life or the cruel, glaring footlights of 

 the up-to-date world. 



