One afternoon the chase after a considerable troop of hartebeests led me deep into the wood. The cunning animals watched my movements very anxiously; by stopping repeatedly they enticed me continually further on into the gloom, and still eluded the chance of giving me a shot. Already had I penetrated so far into the forest that the rays of the sun were totally lost, and everything was wrapped in the obscurity of twilight; I was about to make my way over a depression in the ground, to get nearer to an elevation from which the antelopes were calmly surveying me, when I suddenly stumbled over some huge shapeless object, which seemed to me to be moving. Owing to the obscurity of the place I could not distinguish anything, but I found there was an ant-hill close by, of which I endeavoured to make some use; under the protection of this I made an attempt to get a few steps nearer to the enigmatical creature that lay before me; from behind the mound I cautiously made an investigation, and just at that instant the animal made a lurch, and revealed to me the snout of a huge wild boar, which seemed to cover the whole face like a mask, while a great pair of tusks projected from the bushy bristles of the enormous jaws; the stolid gaze of the brute made it clear that it was not conscious of my being near, but it seemed ready to take a spring upon the first intruder that should disturb it; I approached within the shortest possible distance, and then took aim, and lodged my bullet in the body of the beast. The spectacle that ensued was very singular. The unwieldy creature, contracted like an impaled fly, turned over on to its side, and then, with another contortion, on to its back, where it writhed about and jerked its legs in every direction. Whilst I was patiently abiding my time till the beast should expire, I was taken by surprise as I observed that the hartebeests were within pistol-shot of where I stood, as if they had been spell-bound by the incident which had interposed to rescue them from their pursuer. I was ready anew to take my aim at them. I had, however, only a single-barrelled gun, and no one in attendance to hand me a second. I was just on the point of loading, when, by one of those unlucky chances that will occur, I discovered that in my precipitation I had used all my bullets, and should only waste my labour in following up the pursuit. The wild boar, however, was mine, and I had it brought to my quarters the same evening. I went to bed without partaking of a supper from it, for whenever there is anything to do with the detestable flesh of a wart-hog, I am a regular Mohammedan. Accordingly, I had the greatest satisfaction in handing it over to the hungry negroes.
An incident still more peculiar had occurred to me on a previous occasion when I had gone out to hunt, attended by one of my Nubians, who rode a donkey, of which the supposed office was to carry home whatever might be the produce of my sport. I left my servant and the donkey carefully out of sight in a spot where two rifts in the soil represented what, during the rains, was the course of two connected brooks. Proceeding to the tall grass, I was not long in sighting a small bush-antelope. I took a shot, and could entertain no doubt but that the animal was struck. I saw it scamper across the grass, and was every moment expecting to see it fall, when I heard a sudden bleat of anguish, and it was gone. Forcing my way through the rank grass, I made the closest scrutiny all around the place where, but a few minutes since, I had seen the wounded antelope, but my search was all in vain. I was encumbered in my movements by having to carry a couple of guns; but, knowing that the area of the ground was bounded by the two rifts that enclosed it, I felt certain that my search would not be without success. At length I discovered the antelope almost at my feet, but it was fixed immovably; it was fastened to the ground by what seemed to me at first the filthy skirt of one of the negroes. Looking more closely, however, I soon saw that the creature had been seized by an immense serpent, that had wound itself three times round its body, leaving its head projecting and drawn down so as well nigh to touch the tail I retreated far enough to take an effectual aim, and fired. The huge python immediately reared itself bolt upright, and made a dash in my direction, but it was able only to erect its head; the hinder parts lay trailing on the ground, because the vertebral connection was destroyed. Seeing the state of things, I loaded and fired repeatedly, taking my aim almost at random, for the evolutions of a snake are as difficult to follow as the flight of the goat-sucker. I had on other occasions proved that a snake may be killed by one ordinary load of shot, if this at once breaks the vertebral column. I now completed my capture; the return to my quarters was made in triumph; the double booty formed a double burden, the snake on one side of the donkey and the antelope on the other, balancing each other admirably.
FOOTNOTES:
[36] The phenomenon here depicted is closely allied to those tinted halos which are seen in so much diversity and under so many modifications around both sun and moon. In Schumacher’s ‘Astronomische Jahrbücher’ (Altona, 1823) Fraunhofer has detailed the theory of these halos, and has proved his assertions by many examples that had fallen under his own observation. Whenever the sun or the moon is surrounded by a halo, the sky is ordinarily veiled in light vapours. If the phenomenon is perfect, the rings of this halo are seen to be of the colours of the rainbow. Fraunhofer divides these halos into two classes: viz., halos of a small and halos of a large diameter. If the red tint is outside and away from the luminous body, as in the present case, he calls it a halo of the smaller kind; but if the red is inside and next to the luminous body, it is a halo of the larger kind. This latter case is closely allied to the phenomenon of parhelia. The cause of these tinted halos is to be found in a diffraction of light through globules of vapour, and Fraunhofer has given proof that the light, in passing across the edges of these globules, would assume an appearance of diffraction similar to that which would be caused by its passing through minute apertures. For the formation of a tinted circle it is necessary that the globules should be equally diffused and of an equal magnitude. If the globules were very irregular, there would be only a bright glare, because the eye would receive rays of various colours from one and the same spot in the atmosphere; then the result would be that the light would be white, as in the case under our notice it appeared directly round the outline of the cloud, and also beyond the outside ring of red, so that the coloured circle was bounded on each side by a rim of white light. The smaller the globules of vapour, the larger are the tinted rings, for according to the theory the diameters of the rings are in inverse ratio to those of the globules. According to another theory represented by Galle (Poggendorf’s ‘Annalen,’ vol. xlix.), one cause of these tinted halos is the presence in the atmosphere of ice-crystals of microscopic minuteness; but this hypothesis seems confuted by the fact that similar phenomena have frequently been witnessed within the tropics (Alex. von Humboldt, Voyage II., p. 309). This phenomena of the 18th of May, 1869, was remarkable for the form of the tinted circle, which corresponded exactly with the accidental outline of the clouds, which presented a threefold curve, thus . Thus the entire rim of the cloud became a series of luminous sunlight points formed of globules of vapour, making a halo of the smaller class, and sending forth their own shadows.
[37] Vide Speke’s Journal, p. 462.