408 WILD ANIMALS. 



brute, after glaring at me a few seconds with his sinister-looking, 

 bloodshot eyes, finally made up his mind, and with a grunt rushed 

 at me. I threw my body out flat along the ground to one side, 

 and just avoided the upward thrust of his horn, receiving, how- 

 ever, a severe blow on the left shoulder with the round part of it, 

 nearly dislocating my right arm with the force with which my 

 elbow was driven against the ground, and receiving also a kick on 

 the instep from one of his feet. Luckily for me he did not turn 

 again, as he most certainly would have done had he been wounded, 

 but galloped clean away." 



" The first thing to be done was to look after my horse, and at 

 about 150 yards from where he had been tossed I found him. The 

 buffalo had struck him full in the left thigh; it was an awful 

 wound, and as the poor beast was evidently in the last extremity, 

 I hastily loaded my gun and put him out of his misery." 



Drummond also had two or three ugly adventures with these 

 buffaloes, and nothing but his strong nerve saved him on each 

 occasion from being killed by the ferocious beasts. In one 

 case, when he had to lie still in order to shsim death, the animal, 

 to see whether he was really dead or not, began to lick him over 

 with his file-like tongue, which, as it in several places nearly rubbed 

 the skin off, was, as he remarks, an ordeal most trying to undergo 

 without moving. However he accomplished his purpose. Once, 

 when he was pig-sticking with a large pack of dogs, not far from the 

 river Mbuluzi, a bufi^alo, standing in a small thorn thicket, was dis- 

 turbed by the hounds, and with a roar it charged out within a yard 

 of him. His only chance being to throw himself flat, he did so, 

 and the animal leaped over without touching him. He unwisely 

 decided to attack the buffalo with the spears, and, keeping the thorn 

 bush between them, he started towards the open where the bull 

 now stood. The moment he was perceived, the animal, bellowing 

 with rage, charged. " I had often been told," he observes, " by 

 older and more experienced hunters what one ought to do under 

 the circumstances in which I now found myself, and though it was 

 embarrassing, I tried to carry out their instructions. I threw 

 myself flat on my side, taking the longest stabbing spear — a very 

 formidable weapon, as sharp as a razor — into my right hand, and 



