26 
BUFFALO; 
beasts. But it sometimes happens, that while the 
buffaloes are running off, one of the hunters is tossed 
and killed ; which accident, it seems, is not much 
regarded by the people of Caffraria. Dr. Thunberg 
assures us, that where there are not more than eight 
or twelve buffaloes, the inhabitants are so dexterous 
that they rarely suffer one of them to escape. 
We shall conclude the natural history of this 
ferocious animal with the following account of a 
buffalo hunt; where Mr. Bruce’s friend Ammonios 
makes such a conspicuous figure, that we cannot 
help digressing half a page to introduce him to our 
readers : 
a Ammonios was a man of approved courage and 
conduct, who had been in all the wars of Ras 
Michael, and was placed about Ayto Confu, to lead 
the troops, curb the presumption, and check the im- 
petuosity of that youthful warrior. He was tall, 
and awkwardly made ; slow in speech and motion, 
so much as even to excite ridicule ; about sixty 
years of age, and more corpulent than the Abyssi- 
nians usually are ; in a word, as pedantic and grave 
in his manner as it is possible to express. He spent 
his whole leisure time in reading the scriptures, nor 
did he willingly discourse of any thing else. He 
had been bred a foot-soldier ; and though he rode 
as well as many of the Abyssinians, yet, having long 
stirrup-leathers, with iron rings at the end of them, 
into which he put his naked toe only, he had no 
strength or agility on horseback, nor was his bridle 
