GUN MEDICINE. 279 



the windward side, then sit down, rest the elbow on the knees, and 

 aim, slanting a little upward, at a dark spot behind the shoulders, 

 it falls stone dead. 



To show that a shock on the part of the system to which 

 much nervous force is at the time directed will destroy life, it 

 may be mentioned that an eland, when hunted, can be dispatched 

 by a wound which does little more than injure the muscular 

 system ; its whole nervous force is then imbuing the organs 

 of motion ; and a giraffe, when pressed hard by a good horse 

 only two or three hundred yards, has been known to drop down 

 dead, without any wound being inflicted at all. A full gallop 

 by an eland or giraffe quite dissipates its power, and the 

 hunters, aware of this, always try to press them at once to it, 

 knowing that they have but a short space to run before the 

 animals are in their power. In doing this, the old sportsmen 

 are careful not to go too close to the giraffe's tail, for this animal 

 can swing his hind foot round in a way which would leave little 

 to choose between a kick with it and a clap from the arm of a 

 windmill. 



When the nervous force is entire, terrible wounds may be in- 

 flicted without killing; a tsessebe having been shot through the 

 neck while quietly feeding, we went to him, and one of the men 

 cut his throat deep enough to bleed him largely. He started up 

 after this and ran more than a mile, and would have got clear off 

 had not a dog brought him to bay under a tree, where we found 

 him standing. 



My men, having never had fire-arms in their hands before, 

 found it so difficult to hold the musket steady at the flash of 

 fire in the pan, that they naturally expected me to furnish them 

 with " gun medicine," without which, it is almost universally 

 believed, no one can shoot straight. Great expectations had 

 been formed when I arrived among the Makololo on this subject ; 

 but, having invariably declined to deceive them, as some for 

 their own profit have done, my men now supposed that I would 

 at last consent, and thereby relieve myself from the hard work 

 of hunting by employing them after due medication. This I 

 was most willing to do, if I could have done it honestly ; for, 

 having but little of the hunting furore in my composition, I 



