GAME IN ABUNDANCE 
189 
give them credit for, bolted for better cover, and the giraffes 
made off, with their long, swinging, pendulous strides, till lost 
in the dust and general turmoil in the distance. Some lions 
that I could not plainly see for dust roared loudly, and joined 
the general stampede, for a stampede it was on the largest scale 
I ever witnessed, in which at least some ten thousand head of 
large game took part. 
Hammar and the others, hearing the noise and seeing some 
of the rushing troops of animals pass them, came running 
breathlessly up to inquire into the cause of the commotion, but 
too late to enjoy the spectacle to the full. In a few minutes the 
valley was practically emptied of the vast herds of game, and 
only a few smaller troops of hartebeest and quaggas remained, 
who careered about and even pretended to charge at us, but, 
wheeling, turned off again at about one hundred yards, and 
circled round at a great rate as if in sport, displaying their speed 
and graceful proportions to best advantage. 
When it was all over, Hammar upbraided me for firing the 
unnecessary shot at so ticklish a moment, and I had to get 
out of it as best I could without confessing anything about the 
giraffe, for I felt certain that if our guides, the Mombokooshus, 
fell foul of so much meat, they would insist on eating their way 
through the greater part of it before going on—a little matter 
of a week or so, that did not suit my books, especially in the 
neighbourhood of the Mashubia we had just left behind. 
We walked up this laagte, in which the grass had been 
trodden to powder by the game, and came at the top end of 
the valley to a picturesque green glade fringed on both sides 
with beautiful forest of mabula trees, and, finding two fountains 
of fresh water here, we camped for the night about one hundred 
yards in the mabula forest on our right. There was no under¬ 
wood, and the bare white sand on which we slept was thinly 
bestrewn with leaves. We were still somewhat anxious about 
the Mashubia behind us, although it appeared as if they had 
returned for good ; still this might only be a ruse to lure us into 
a feeling of security, and make it easier for them to attack us. 
