196 THE BONDS OF AFRICA 



One afternoon I wandered east along the 

 Guaso, and sighted a fine herd of oryx feeding 

 out in the open, amidst some thorny aloes on 

 the sun-baked, sultry desert. There was one 

 particularly fine head amongst them, and after 

 a long, tiring stalk, I got in a fairly long shot 

 and saw the oryx go off wounded. I followed 

 him, and my next bullet smashed his shoulder. 

 He lay quite still, but when Elmi and I ap- 

 proached him he thrust at us most viciously, 

 and the long, thin, sharp-pointed horns, over 

 thirty inches in length, cut the air like scimitars. 

 Elmi on one occasion sustained a serious injury 

 to his thigh through rushing in too hurriedly 

 on a wounded oryx ('' origis," he used to call 

 them), and he was very prudent in approaching 

 these creatures afterwards. " They are werry, 

 werry bad ! " he would say; and indeed, unless 

 it be the roan or the sable, I know of no other 

 antelope that shows fight so readily and effectively 

 as the Oryx heisa. 



Later I shot a dik-dik, a pretty little buck but 

 little bigger than a hare. There were thousands 

 of these diminutive animals to be seen amongst 

 the broken lava-rocks a little way from the banks 

 of the Guaso. They appear to have habits 

 somewhat akin to those of the klip-springer, and 

 have a very similar " hedgehog " coat. Elmi 

 had just picked up the dik-dik when I heard a 

 loud snort, and a rhino dashed out of the bush. 

 I hastily grabbed my rifle, but the great beast 

 stared stupidly at us for a few seconds and then 

 departed into the thorn-belt. I heaved a sigh 

 of thankfulness, as he, like the majority of the 

 Guaso Nyiro rhino, had very short horns, and 

 I had no wish to shoot him. 



I had great luck that evening, for while 



