CHAPTER FOUR.
A BRACE OF "BLACK MANES."
If the young yagers had met with but few adventures south of the Gareep,they were not long north of it before they fell in with one ofsufficient interest to be chronicled. It occurred at their very firstcamp after crossing.
They had chosen for their camp the side of a "vley," in the midst of awide plain, where there chanced to be both grass and water, though bothof a rather indifferent kind. The plain was tolerably open, though hereand there grew clumps of low bushes, and between these stood atintervals the dome-shaped houses of white ants--those of the _Termesmordax_--rising to the height of several feet above the surface.
They had just outspanned and permitted their oxen to wander upon thegrass, when the voice of Swartboy was heard exclaiming--
"De leuw! de leuw!"
All looked where Swartboy pointed. There, sure enough, was a lion,--alarge "schwart-fore-life," or _black-maned_ one,--right out upon theplain, and beyond the place where the oxen were browsing.
There was a clump of "bosch" just behind the lion. Out of this he hadcome at sight of the oxen; and, having advanced a few yards, he had laindown among the grass, and was now watching the animals as a cat would amouse, or a spider the unconscious fly.
They had scarcely set their eyes upon him when another was seen issuingfrom the "bosch," and, with stealthy trot, running up to the side of hercompanion. _Her_ companion, I say, because the second was a lioness, asthe absence of a mane and the tiger-like form testified. She wasscarcely inferior in size to the lion, and not a bit less fierce anddangerous in any encounter she might chance to fall in with.
Having joined the lion, she squatted beside him; and both now sat upontheir tails, like two gigantic cats, with full front towards the camp,and evidently eyeing the oxen with hungry looks.
Horses, hunters, drivers, and dogs, were all in sight; but what caredthe lions for that? The tempting prey was before them, and theyevidently meditated an attack,--if not just then, whenever theopportunity offered. Most certainly they contemplated supping eitherupon ox-beef or horse-flesh.
Now these were the first lions that had been encountered upon theexpedition. "Spoor" had been seen several times, and the terrible roarhad been heard once or twice around the night-camp; but the "king ofbeasts" now appeared for the first time _in propria persona_, with hisqueen along with him, and of course his presence was productive of nosmall excitement in the yager camp. It must not be denied that thisexcitement partook largely of the nature of a "panic."
The first fear of the hunters was for their own skins, and in this bothBushman and Kaffir equally shared. After a time, however, this feelingsubsided. The lions would not attack the camp. They do so only on veryrare occasions. It was the camp _animals_ they were after, and so longas these were present, they would not spring upon their owners. So farthere was no danger, and our yagers recovered their self-possession.
But it would not do to let the carnivorous brutes destroy their oxen,--that would not do. Something must be done to secure them. A kraal mustbe made at once, and the animals driven into it. The lions lay quietlyon the plain, though still in a menacing attitude. But they were a goodway off--full five hundred yards--and were not likely to attack the oxenso close to the camp. The huge wagons--strange sight to them--no doubthad the effect of restraining them for the present. They either waiteduntil the oxen should browse nearer, or till night would enable them toapproach the latter unobserved.
As soon, then, as it was perceived that they were not bent upon animmediate attack, Groot Willem and Hendrik mounted their horses, rodecautiously out beyond the oxen, and quietly drove the latter to theother side of the vley. There they were herded by Klaas and Jan; whileall the rest, Swartboy and Congo included, went to work with axe andbill-hook in the nearest thicket of "wait-a-bit" thorns. In less thanhalf-an-hour a sufficient number of bushes were cut to form, with thehelp of the wagons, a strong kraal; and inside this, both horses andoxen were driven,--the former made fast to the wheel-spokes, while thelatter were clumped up loosely within the enclosure.
The hunters now felt secure. They had kindled a large fire on each sideof the kraal, though they knew that this will not always keep lions off.But they trusted to their guns; and as they would sleep inside thecanvass tents of their wagons, closing both "voor" and "achter-claps,"they had nothing to fear. It would be a hungry lion, indeed, that wouldhave attempted to break the strong kraal they had made; and no lion,however hungry, would ever think of charging into a wagon.
Having made all secure, therefore, they seated themselves around one oftheir fires, and set about cooking their dinner, or ratherdinner-supper, for it was to include both meals. Their journeyprevented them from dining earlier.
They chanced to have little else than _biltong_, or dried meat, to cook.The long wait by the drift had consumed their stock of fine springbokvenison, which they had laid in some days before. It is true they hadvenison in camp, but it was that of the "reitbok," or reed-buck--socalled from its habit of frequenting the long reeds by the banks ofrivers; and it was while they were journeying through a belt of theseafter crossing the drift, that this one had been shot by Hendrik. Asmall antelope the reitbok is--the _Antilope eleotragus_ of naturalists.It stands less than three feet in height, formed much like thespringbok, but with a rougher coat of hair, of an ashy grey colour, andsilver white underneath. Its horns, however, are not lyrate, as in thespringbok, but rise first in the plane of its forehead, and then curveboldly forward to the tips. They are about twelve inches in length,wrinkled at the base, prominently ringed in the middle, and smooth nearthe points. The reitbok, as its name implies, inhabits the reedybottoms by the margins of streams and rivers, and its food consists ofplants growing in humid and marshy situations. Hence its flesh isinferior to that of most South African antelopes, and it was not afavourite with the young yagers. Although it had been brought along,they preferred even the dry biltong, and it was left to the lessdelicate appetites of Swartboy and Congo.
Now the hunters, Hendrik and Groot Willem, would have gone out to lookfor a springbok, or some other game, but the presence of the lionsprevented that; and so the boys were obliged to content themselves witha slice of the biltong; and each, having cut him a short stick for aspit, set about broiling his piece over the coals.
During all this time the lion and lioness kept the position they hadtaken on the plain, scarce once having changed their attitude. Theywere waiting patiently the approach of night.
Groot Willem and Hendrik had both advised making an attack upon them;but in this case they again gave way to the more prudent counsel ofHans, strengthened, perhaps, by his reminding them of the instructionsthey had received from both their fathers at setting out. Theseinstructions were,--never to attack a lion without good reason for sodoing, but always to give the "ole leuw" a wide berth when it waspossible to do so. It is well known that the lion will rarely attackman when not first assailed; and therefore the advice given to the youngyagers was sound and prudent? and they followed it.
It wanted yet an hour or two of sunset. The lions still sat squatted onthe grass, closely observed by the hunters.
All at once the eyes of the latter became directed upon a new object.Slowly approaching over the distant plain, appeared two strange animals,similar in form, and nearly so in size and colour. Each was about thesize of an ass, and not unlike one in colour,--especially that varietyof the ass which is of a buff or fulvous tint. Their forms, however,were more graceful than that of the ass, though they were far from beinglight or slender. On the contrary, they were of a full, round, boldoutline. They were singularly marked about the head and face. Theground colour of these parts was white, but four dark bands were sodisposed over them as to give the animals the appearance of wearing aheadstall of black leather. The first of these bands descended in astreak down the forehead; another passed through the eyes to the cornersof the mouth; a third embraced the nose; while a fourth ran from the
base of the ears passing under the throat--a regular throat-strap--thuscompleting the resemblance to the stall-halter.
A reversed mane, a dark list down the back, and a long black bushy tailreaching to the ground, were also characters to be observed. But whatrendered these animals easily to be distinguished from all others wasthe splendid pair of horns which each carried. These horns werestraight, slender, pointing backwards almost horizontally. They wereregularly ringed till within a few inches of their tips, which were assharp as steel spits. In both they were of a deep jet colour, shininglike ebony, and full three feet in length. But what was rathersingular, the horns of the smaller animal--for there was some differencein their size--were longer than those of the larger one! The former wasthe female, the latter the male, therefore the horns of the female weremore developed than those of the male--an anomaly among animals of theantelope tribe, for antelopes they were. The young yagers had nodifficulty in distinguishing their kind. At the first glance they allrecognised the beautiful "oryx," one of the loveliest animals of Africa,one of the fairest creatures in the world.