124 Great and Small Game of Africa 



or sacrifices to the spirit of the deceased bull ; whereupon it is propitiated 

 and endues its slayer with its own reputed qualities of fierceness and cun- 

 ning. Should the hunter or his relatives be remiss in these devotions, the 

 spirit of the bushcow enters into the hunter to his destruction, for he goes 

 raging mad and dies. 



I remember one being shot by an officer just before he was seized with 

 an attack of malarial fever, so severe as to cause him to be invalided home ; 

 whereupon all the natives unanimously concluded that he had gone mad, 

 and been sent home to die, and argued from it that even the powerful 

 white man could not slay a " man " bushcow with impunity. 



The hunting of the animal is attended with difficulty. It is shy and 

 retiring, and when feeding out in the open travels at a great pace. Perhaps 

 the soundest method is to frequent a waterside, not of the big rivers, but 

 of one of the smaller streams, as soon as daylight permits of tracks being 

 discerned, morning after morning, until the fresh spoor of one that has 

 recently watered is met with. The tracks must then be followed up 

 rapidly, and yet with caution, in the hopes of coming up with the beast 

 before it reaches the denser bush, wherein it is nearly impossible for the 

 most experienced of trackers to keep steadily on the spoor. Great caution 

 is required, for the bushcow is very quick of hearing and of acute scenting 

 powers. Again, when one does come up with them, or it, and the shot is 

 planted, the game is very far from being brought to bag. They are very 

 tenacious of life, and will travel long distances with a quantity of lead in 

 them. The skin, on an average § inch in thickness, presents no great 

 difficulty to a bullet, and I have put a hollow-pointed Paradox bullet into 

 a bull broadside on, which only stopped just under the skin on the farther 

 side. But shot after shot may be put in before the beast comes to its 

 knees, and, when down, it is a long time in dying, even when hit in a 

 usually vital region. 



For these reasons a bushcow head will always be a rare trophy, and the 



