158 ANTELOPE SHOT. 



the shade of which I was glad to sit and rest myself, 

 towards the latter end of the journey, and await the 

 coming up of the camels, which the pedestrian 

 party I was with had left far behind. Whilst 

 sitting here, one of the Hy Soumaulee brought me 

 as a refreshment, a handful of the young green 

 pods of one species of the mimosa tree, which tasted 

 not unlike the shell of the common pea, and after 

 a long abstinence from fresh vegetable food, I 

 enjoyed this singular kind of salad very well. 



Six fine antelopes, part of a large herd that was 

 browsing among the bushes now approached within 

 fifty yards of us, and as soon as I observed them, 

 without saying a word, or scarcely stirring from my 

 position, I took up my carbine, and fired at one as 

 she had just put her feet against the trunk of a low 

 tree to reach, like a goat, the leaves and tender 

 extremities of the branches. She fell, of course, 

 for the ball had broken her backbone ; and Adam 

 Burrah springing up, rushed like a hound upon 

 her, and cut her throat in the most orthodox manner, 

 with his dagger, as he repeated the usual grace 

 after the scrupulously pious Garahmee, who had 

 also run to his assistance. 



My mule coming up with the camels, the dead 

 game was lashed across the saddle, after due exami- 

 nation by my Dankalli friends of the effect of gun- 

 shot, as exhibited in the wound, and who shook their 

 heads with sundry emphatic grunts, as if the idea 

 kept recurring to their minds of the possibility of a 



