HOW WILD ANIMALS ARE CAUGHT 53 
and deadly, big-game hunting is attended with little danger. 
In the Arctic Regions the polar bear, once so formidable, 
now excites scarcely more fear than the musk-ox ; while in 
Africa the sportsman approaches to within a few paces of 
lions or elephants, to photograph them before he despatches 
them. But for the natives big-game hunting is a very differ- 
ent matter. Then the fray is far from one-sided ; the weapons 
of the man are little, if at all, superior to those of the brute ; 
and the ‘‘hunting” is more of the nature of a hand-to-hand 
encounter, requiring the utmost skill and courage on the part 
of the human combatant. Should a horse stumble—an 
accident which, on that uneven ground, intersected by under- 
ground streams, is only too likely to happen—death either to 
the animal or its rider is the probable result. We need not 
be surprised that the Sudanese assert that the professional 
elephant-hunter never dies at home, but ends sooner or later 
under the tusks and feet of a hunted elephant. 
The rhinoceros, buffalo and lion are also killed by swords- 
men in the same way as elephants. The giraffe, antelope 
and ostrich are chased until fatigue overcomes them. In their 
case, although there is no danger, the strain both upon man 
and horse is severe, on account of the length and swiftness of 
the pursuit. We might go at much greater length into the 
mode of killing wild animals in this interesting country, from 
the skilful ostrich-hunting of the Bedouins, to the wholesale 
slaughter of the European ‘“‘sportsman”. Our special con- 
cern, however, is not with the killing of animals, but with 
the methods of catching them alive; let us therefore follow 
the career of one of my hunters, who has been sent on this 
errand. 
Daybreak at Atbara. A gentle breeze stirs the grassy 
steppes; the trees are suffused with the bright glare of a ris- 
ing African sun. In the thick woods on either side of the 
river there is the twittering of countless swarms of birds, from 
the gigantic marabou to the little swallow which flits over the 
