300 A Breath from the Veldt 



became, the fresher the sassaby seemed to be. The sassaby, indeed, seem to 

 have solved the problem of the greatest amount of speed to be got out of 

 antelope legs with the least possible exertion, and may be highly commended 

 to any sportsman who wants a lesson in hard riding for nothing. On the 

 move this antelope has the same ungainly and " humpy " look as the blessbuck ; 

 and on seeing the two animals running for the first time one is apt to think 

 that any good horse could easily overtake them. But not a bit of it : sassaby 

 and blessbuck are the two fleetest antelopes in South Africa — so much so that 

 the swiftness of the former has passed into a Zulu proverb. I am sorry I can 

 say no more of them from personal experience. All I can do is to give my 

 readers a sketch showing to the best of my ability the animals as they appeared 

 on the move. And now, with many apologies for this digression, I go back to 

 the hunt. Having "done got experience" (as the niggers say), and our horses 

 being thoroughly fagged out, Oom suggested that we should go right back to 

 the starting-point, where he was sure his buck was lying dead, for (as I told 

 him) I had counted seven animals and we had been pursuing only six. The 

 old hunter here proved himself worthy of his profession, making a very pretty 

 and artistic piece of spooring over not by any means easy ground, picking out 

 exactly where the buck had left the herd, and eventually bringing us to the 

 dead body of an old sassaby cow which his shot had taken just a little too far 

 back. When we got into camp late, we found Tace had been lucky enough to 

 come across the hartebeests ; but as he said he had wounded and lost an old 

 bull and three cows, we concluded he was either romancing a bit, after the 

 fashion of those peculiar Dutch sportsmen who don't kill very much, but 

 whose bullets never fail to strike. 



No event of interest occurred for the next few days till we were a day's 

 march the other side of the Bubye. As we all knew the country — a great 

 sparsely-bushed plain — we hunted separately, and on meeting at the dirty mud- 

 puddle called something or other " -fontein," the other two hunters assured us 

 they had seen both sable and roan antelope, though I saw nothing but a duiker, 

 which I missed. The old man said he had seen a great deal of fresh roan antelope 

 spoor, besides a fine old bull, which he had unfortunately wounded and lost. 

 Being now keener than ever to get a roan bull, I suggested that the old man, 

 Tace, and Teenie should go on and rejoin the family, while Piet and I, with 

 one of the Kaffir boys, returned to the Bubye for a week's hunting. To this 

 proposal all agreed except the old man, who, although very anxious about his 

 family, refused to part company with me. " No," said he ; " we are mates for 



