90 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
out cattle disease. Like all the Wakamba they had flocks 
of goats and sheep, and herds of humped cattle; but they 
were much in need of meat and hailed my advent. They 
were wild savages with filed teeth, many of them stark 
naked, though some of them carried a blanket. Their 
heads were curiously shaved so that the hair tufts stood out 
in odd patterns, and they carried small bows, and arrows 
with poisoned heads. 
The following morning I rode out with Captain Slatter. 
We kept among the hills. The long drought was still un¬ 
broken. The little pools were dry and their bottoms baked 
like iron, and there was not a drop in the watercourses. 
Part of the land was open and part covered with a thin 
forest or bush of scattered mimosa trees. In the open 
country were many zebras and hartebeests, and the latter 
were found even in the thin bush. In the morning we found 
a small herd of eland at which, after some stalking, I got a 
long shot and missed. The eland is the largest of all the 
horned creatures that are called antelope, being quite as 
heavy as a fattened ox. The herd I approached consisted 
of a dozen individuals, two of them huge bulls, their coats 
having turned a slaty blue, their great dewlaps hanging 
down, and the legs looking almost too small for the massive 
bodies. The reddish-colored cows were of far lighter build. 
Eland are beautiful creatures and ought to be domesticated. 
As I crept toward them I was struck by their likeness to 
great, clean, handsome cattle. They were grazing or rest¬ 
ing, switching their long tails at the flies that hung in 
attendance upon them and lit on their flanks, just as if they 
were Jerseys in a field at home. My bullet fell short, their 
size causing me to underestimate the distance, and away 
