IX 
KOODOO-STALKING ON GOLIS RANGE 
233 
the bare hillside, yon may keep up this performance for any 
length of time ; but once you move, having made you out, off 
they go. More than once I have been warned of the presence 
of koodoo in a valley below by the loud echoing bark coming 
across from half a mile away, and arresting ourselves as if turned 
to stone, we have searched the opposite slopes, and have at last 
made out three or four brown bodies, standing under the shade 
of an overhanging precipice, in colour so like the background 
that we should never have seen them bub for that warning bark. 
The old doe is usually a splendid sentry, but often betrays the 
herd in this way. 
On the 14th we came back to our former bivouac at the reed- 
margined spring, hoping to see the herd again in the morning, 
perhaps accompanied by an old bull. We arrived late, and 
found the baboons again in force. We lit fires and threw 
ourselves down under a fig-tree for the night. This was a very 
picturesque night camp. The stream was just below us, giving 
out a murmuring of running water which was refreshing after 
the hot march of the day. An hour after the sun had gone 
down a crescent moon rose in the east, and just disappearing in 
the west, following the sun, blazing in the clear mountain air, 
was the Hedig wa Gcdab , or evening star. 
The two goats which I had brought to supply milk for my 
morning coffee were standing against each other, head to tail, 
between the two fires, trying to keep warm in spite of a current 
of air which blew down from the higher gorges of Banyero, 
where the mist hung white, shreds of it clinging to the side 
ravines and round the shoulders of the mountain. Between the 
fires, and around the goats, lay coiled the four natives. The 
camel sat alone, a little farther out, chewing the cud with 
regular cadence of sound and gazing into the darkness, its large 
eyes reflecting the firelight. The baboons kept up their barking 
all night as on the former occasion, and next morning were seen 
crossing the top of an adjacent cliff, inspecting our camp. 
The next day we hunted for koodoo all the morning, but 
only once more saw the same family of cows with the half- 
grown bull ; so we made for the Henweina camp, and arrived in 
the afternoon, very thirsty. Geli, while taking care of my 
water-bottle, smashed it against a projecting rock, losing the 
day’s supply. 
This march home was twice as long as it need have been ; 
for, anxious to visit the higher parts of Banyero, I had ascended 
