114 THE ROAN ANTELOPE 



possible. He seems surrounded by an impalpable 

 something which, if it were reducible into words, 

 would plainly say : "I am fully and painfully 

 conscious of my shortcomings. Let it go at 

 that. Don't rub it in." 



As in the cases of the eland and sable, both 

 sexes carry horns ; but whilst consistently mean 

 and inconspicuous, those of the older males are 

 usually very broken and damaged, partly by their 

 furious family combats, and partly as the result 

 of their habit of breaking up the ant-hills of the 

 blind termite to get at the salty earth within. 

 The herd bulls are thus preferable as specimens to 

 the solitary old males which may sometimes be 

 seen. 



The surroundings in which roan are to be 

 found are, as I have said, fairly flat. Their habits 

 of feeding and drinking are almost precisely the 

 same as those of the sable — ^that is to say, they 

 maybe found in the wide grass-clearings soon after 

 dawn and at evening, and here they continue to 

 feed far into the night. On being disturbed, they 

 utter a short, impatient snort, and canter leisurely 

 off, to stop, however, within a short distance and 

 listen intently. Onde alarmed, they become very 

 suspicious, and it is usually extremely difficult to 

 draw up to them a second time. A case of this 

 kind occurred to me on the Lualua River some 

 years ago. It was a fine game country, singularly 

 well watered, and, as is so much of the Quelimane 

 district, a landscape of peculiar beauty and 

 interest. In the early morning my hunter and I 

 cautiously approached an open forest clearing 



