G7 
clod-like lumps, which have scarcely attracted the attention of the passer-by, springing suddenly into life; when some dozens 
of urim-looking customers emerging with a general splash, and forming up-to gaze for an instant with menacing front at 
the obtruder, turn tumultuously about and plange into the nearest covert. 
All writefs are agreed as to the hazard of iny ading the haunts of this savage animal, whose skulking habits, no less 
than his tremendous strength, render him an object to be greatly dreaded, Although neither exasperated by wounds, nor 
driven to extremity in the chase, he is described to be of so irascible a disposition, that he will even attack his great 
enemy, man, without the smallest provocation — darting upon the ill-fated object of his vengeance with blind fury, and with 
a swiftness and activity which could ill be expected from so awkward and Inmbering a figure. And should he succeed in 
destroying his victim, it is his wont to stand over the inanimate corpse for a considerable time, goring and tossing it in 
vindictive fury with his formidable horns, trampling it under his feet, crushing and mangling it with his knees, and stripping 
off the skin with his rough and prickly tongue; desisting occasionally, but to return again with renewed appetite, as though 
his revenge might never be glutted! Yet these wanfon acts of aggression, could they. be properly sifted, would in all proba- 
bility be found to constitute the exception, rather than the rule, of the animal's ordinary habits. If left to itself, the 
natural instinct is to retire from before the presence of the lord of the creation, instead of provoking his hostility; and 
any instances to the contrary which may have come under observation, are doubtless to be Iaid at the door of some solitary 
onteast from the herd, ejected at the point of the horn by a stronger rival, and left to prowl about the forest im a state 
of sullen irritation, with every inclination to molest, and to be mischievous. 
In the season of love, when the passions of the males are at their height, fierce and terrible are the single combats 
in which they engage. The mechans eyes of the contending rivals sparkle with fury, as, glaring one upon the other, and 
shaking their huge heads, they emit a deep roar, and paw up the earth in defiance, preparatory to placing themselves in the 
posture of attack. Then, with foreheads depressed, and tails which indicate by their whirling motion the determination and 
vigour of the owners—like champion knights in the lists, they tilt forward at full speed, bringing their protruding brows 
together with a mighty crash, and making the glades to ring again with their wild joust, which is thus continued until one 
of them is worsted, ‘. 
Onward they rush, and from alternate blows 
Down their gored sides the purple current flows; 
Front clashed on front their battering horns rebound, 
Olympus hellows and the woods resound. 
The combat o'er, insatiate rage remains, 
The yanquished exile roams o'er distant plains; 
Mourns o’er his shame and each ignohle scar, 
That matks th’ insulting victor’s might in war; 
Mourns, in far jands unknown, that forced to Tove, 
In battle unavenged, and lost to love, 
Ho leaves, oft turning ere he quits the plain, 
The native honours of his proud domain. 
Excepting the ancient and lethargic bulls, which often wander about singly, these wild denizens of the waste roam usually 
in herds, the fiercest and stoutest males leading a large seraglio of cows, and even defying the attack of the tawny lion 
himself, In the open savannahs, rarely disturbed by human presence, which we traversed, vast droves were frequently 
congregated; and long strings might be seen as the day dawned, filing in formidable procession along the level profile of the 
silent landscape. Haddled together, and galloping, when hard pressed by the pursuer, in dense masses, they formed a most 
imposing spectacle, and raised, in their headlong course, a cloud of dust, which completely obscured the rear of their sable 
column. 
Like most of the other large African quadrupeds, this animal is frequently entrapped in pitfals by the savages, the 
more warlike tribes of whom follow the hazardous chace armed only with a sheaf of assagais, trusting to their agility for 
escape among the intricacies of the forest, should the infariated beast ‘turn again to rend them.’ In the woods of Caffraria 
especially, where the species is yery abundant, they are thus constantly hunted by the Zooloos on foot; but the victory is 
often to the quadruped — : 
He tramples on earth and tosses. on high 
The foremost who rush on his strength but to dle— 
and many and many a stout warrior has been expended without a record, in his bold endeayours to carry to his royal 
master a tufted tail in token of his prowess.* 
It was at Mimori, a few miles south of the then flourishing valley of Mosega, since laid waste by the emigrant 
farmers, that we first encountered the wild Buffalo. Unyoking late one afternoon, a chain of lakes to the left of our 
* « Those,” says one who travelled in that part of the country during the reign of Chaka, surnamed ‘the Bloody,” ‘who unfortunately fall or are severely 
wounded in these attacks, find no sympathy from the king; that unfeeling savage, when told of several of his subjects haying been trampled to death by the Buffalo, 
coolly remarking, with an air of perfect indifference, that ‘it was the beat way of getting rid of cowards,’ ” Describing one of these exhibitions of valour at which be 
was himself present, the same author continues, ‘the people had stationed themselves on each side of the drove, and had +o harassed the animals, that we could 
only have fired with the risk of hitting some of the hunters in lieu of the game. We therefore stood and looked on, and presently beheld the warriors disperse 
in every direction. The infuriated Buffaloes, after tossing one man on to the top of a thorn-bush, had trampled him to death, whilst another unhappy wretch had 
had his thigh dislocated. The hunters, however, killed one, und having carried the tail to Chaka, reported these accidents, to which he displayed great indiffe- 
rence, remarking to the man whose thigh was dislocated, that it ‘ proyed the weakness of his limbs;’ and then, with a laugh, in which the by-standers heartily . 
joined, he continued, ‘you are like an old woman now, I must find a husband for you.’ Another party had arrived in the meantime bringing two tuils, its chief 
also reporting one man to have beeu killed, and two others desperately damaged."—Jsaucs’ Adventures in Kastern Africa, 
