A Breath from the Veldt i6i 



situation, and having finally settled to leave Frau Van Staden and her family 

 for the next few months, we all trekked eastward to the Nuanetsi. During 

 these days we hunted hard, every man of us, to try and get enough meat to 

 keep the old lady and her family till Hert and Petrus should return, as they 

 were to accompany us for some distance and then go back to stay and take 

 care of her. All the Dutchmen were fairly successful, Petrus particularly so, 

 killing in the four days one koodoo bull and one cow, and three waterbuck 

 ewes ; whilst Tace got two koodoo cows, the old man two steinbucks, and 

 myself and Hert nothing but an old wart-hog, with which I was particularly 

 pleased, though the others did not think much of it as they could not convert 

 it into " biltung." 



During my hunt (sometimes alone and sometimes with Hert) I was in 

 great hope of seeing roan antelope, some fresh spoor of which we saw daily ; 

 but what game there was had been evidently much disturbed, and had moved 

 far from the water after drinking. For five days I saw nothing, till, returning 

 one evening from the Gong Hills, we came across a solitary koodoo cow ; 

 and as we wanted the meat for the old lady, we gave chase at once. Though 

 I had a good chance, and Hert a better one, we fairly muddled it, and the 

 buck got clear away untouched after about ten minutes' chase. Soon afterwards 

 we turned our horses' heads for home ; and there, in some open glades within 

 thirty yards of us, stood Mr. and Mrs. Pig and the entire Pig family, so I got 

 off quietly and had a nice easy shot at the old warrior. A loud squeal told 

 at once that he had received my message, upon which he started off^ after 

 the rest with a broken shoulder, but only went a short distance, for Hert took 

 up his spoor very nicely, while I flattered myself I was doing rather well in 

 the trail of what proved to be the quite scatheless old sow. A whistle from 

 Hert, however, brought me quickly to him, and there lay old Ugly in extremis, 

 with his back up against a bush and his fiendishly hideous head and fine tusks 

 directed towards us — dying as he had lived, hard. Notwithstanding his 

 excessive ugliness the wart-hog looks what he is, a toughened old soldier 

 seasoned by many a battle, and arouses in the heart of the hunter a sense 

 of respect for the indomitable pluck which characterises all the members of 

 his family throughout the world. For sheer dogged obstinacy and fierce 

 expression, he has probably no equal ; and though in my small experience 

 of the animals I never saw any of those hostile demonstrations that one reads 

 of in books, I can imagine that, if suddenly encountered after a slight wound, 

 he might prove a very dangerous beast. 



