XII 
LAKE RUDOLPH 
2 77 
being an altogether dignified one in which to receive, at close 
quarters, so august a visitor ; so I gave a slight whistle between 
my teeth. He stood still, and held his head well up with his 
ears cocked, looking hard towards me and exposing his breast. 
I at once, being in readiness, gave him a bullet in the throat, 
just above the chest (the chest itself is too low to aim for a 
front shot), and, as he swung round and started off, another in 
the ribs. He galloped about fifty yards, just managed to get 
through a little gully, though his action was getting laboured, 
and on to the stony farther bank, where he stood for a second, 
half turned round, and toppled over on to his side ; then kicked 
his legs into the air a couple of times, and, after a squeal, lay 
still. Pice was soon smelling at his nose, and, on my getting 
up to him, though his little eye still blinked, he breathed no 
more. Even half a minute or so later, on putting my finger to 
it the eyelid winked again ; but it was only the muscles 
working automatically, for he was dead. Cutting him up 
delayed us an hour and a half; but it was well worth it. 
He was fat, and the men loaded themselves in great glee 
with the meat (much beloved of Swahili) on top of their 
burdens—one would have thought to the breaking point, 
and so they would have said, had it not been to fill, first 
their pots, and then their own stomachs. 
Before allowing him to be touched I had examined him 
critically, and carefully measured him with my tape-line, and, 
though I could detect no structural difference whatever, he 
certainly was, although evidently a fully mature bull, so much 
smaller than the average “ faro ” of farther south that on 
comparing his measurements with those of my large El Gereh 
specimen he seemed quite a pygmy. 1 I hid his whole head 
under a heap of stones. The horns were not long. Fortu¬ 
nately it was rather cloudy with a nice breeze, so that we did 
not feel the heat as usual, and in spite of this delay and 
1 These measurements, together with others, will be found in the table given on 
page 425. 
