THE SABLE ANTELOPE 109 



he enabled me to plant a bullet about the root 

 of his tail, which brought him down badly 

 disabled. It must be remembered that I was 

 a very new hand at big-game shooting, which 

 must be my excuse for so unpardonable an 

 imprudence; but approaching the fallen beast 

 quite closely and incautiously, he struggled 

 suddenly up on his forelegs, and snorting 

 viciously, swept roimd his powerful horns with 

 a lightning sweep which came so near my ribs 

 that the points penetrated the loose folds of 

 my khaki shooting- jacket, and, in addition to 

 tearing half of it away, threw me some distance 

 from him — I have no doubt due more than any- 

 thing else to my startled and hasty recoil. In 

 any case, it was a lesson I never forgot. 



The buUs are desperate fighters, and I have 

 seen several which bore upon their glossy coats 

 ineradicable traces of their pugilistic dispositions. 

 No doubt their principal encoimters take place 

 during the period of the rutting season. It 

 used to be said that the sable was the only 

 antelope that the Hon hesitated to attack; but 

 this is certainly not the case in Zambezia, where 

 I have seen several lions' kiUs consisting of the 

 carcasses of these animals. StUl, even the so- 

 called king of beasts must at times find the 

 powerful, well-armed sable an uncommonly 

 awkward morsel, and there are cases on record 

 wherein the great feline has come off, to say 

 the least of it, second best. An old friend of 

 mine in Nyasaland possessed a Hon skin taken 

 from a beast which he found lying dead near 



