76 
THE NEW AFRICA 
enormously tusked old boar; and in less time tban it takes 
to write it, pigs, bearers, quaggas, and ourselves were mixed 
in one wild meUe, each bearer throwing down his load to 
join in the hunt. We were too mixed up to shoot, but drove 
the game around until, in despair, here and there a confused 
quagga would quietly stand to be assegaied. Five and a 
pig was the total after the fun was over, so we adjourned 
for the day, the natives in wild excitement at this windfall 
of their favourite flesh. It is an old saying amongst them 
that lions and themselves, being gifted with higher epicurean 
qualities, mutually find quagga the most palatable meat. We, 
however, could not overcome our repugnance to the horsey 
smell attendant upon the cutting up, thus gaining for our¬ 
selves the compassion of the natives, and, what was more to 
the purpose, the monopoly of the pig, whose roasted head 
next morning, hot from the coals in which it had been 
qualifying for our breakfast overnight, recalls the most 
pleasurable recollections. 
The country about here was disagreeably thorny, reminding 
me of an old brown-and-yellow striped coat I wore, now dis¬ 
carded in favour of Pikinini, my bed carrier, since the last effort 
had placed it beyond the pale of even ‘ interior ’ respectability. 
To my surprise, I found that with a grey jacket I could not 
approach game nearly as well as heretofore, and ascribe this 
alteration to the fact that animals when gazing at me in the 
striped jacket in some manner connected me with something 
not so fearsome as when clothed in other garments. I have 
profited largely by this hint on other shooting trips since. 
It is also about here that one of the strangest experiences 
with baboons became my lot. Walking alone in search of 
game, I came upon a troop of some seventy baboons accom¬ 
panied by many rooi buck, with whom they seemed on the 
best of terms. Wishing to pass on in search of larger game 
between the river and where they were, I strolled slowly along 
some fifty yards off, when a large lady baboon, evidently stricken 
by an amatory arrow from the little god, came gently towards 
