The heart of Africa, Vol. 2 (of 2)

by Georg August Schweinfurth

Meagre as were the details of my latest intelligence, it may be imagined that they roused me to the greatest excitement, so that it was with the most feverish expectation that I awaited the arrival of a son of Kurshook Ali, who would bring definite tidings as to whether there was peace or war in Europe.

As it had been my intention to return home immediately after my Niam-niam tour, I had given no orders in the previous year for any quantity of fresh stores to be sent me from Khartoom; consequently the boats that now arrived had brought me nothing beyond the few articles that I knew would be necessary on my passage down the river; these inconsiderable things, meanwhile, had been left at the Meshera; but after the hardships of the last few months, I felt that the possession of the merest trifles would be an incalculable boon to me. Pending the arrival of this little addition to my present means, I had still to endure some weeks of poverty; then for a short period after receiving it I enjoyed a brief season of comparative comfort until once more, when the scanty stock was exhausted, I relapsed for the rest of my sojourn in the country into a state of destitution more distressing than ever.

The two months that I spent in Khalil’s huts were passed almost entirely in hunting. Not only was the abundance of game about the valley of the Dyoor a great inducement to sport, but such was my nervous condition that continual exertion was the only thing that made my life endurable. I found walking to be the best antidote to depression and the most effectual remedy for headache and languor; and it was only during the hours that I passed in the wilderness that any of my former energy returned. Whenever I found myself within the walls of my hut I was conscious of nothing but weariness and dejection and was only fit for lounging on my bed; it was but rarely that my love of sketching from nature in any degree diverted me or gave me its wonted amusement.

ANTELOPE-HUNTING.

Khalil had lent me a capital gun, a weapon specially suited for antelope-shooting, that did me good service. During the months of March and April I brought down as many as five-and-twenty head of the larger kinds of game, including amongst them specimens of nearly all the different species of antelopes that the fauna of the country could boast. The number of caama and leucotis antelopes appeared little short of inexhaustible. The flesh of the leucotis served as a substitute for beef and mutton, both of which at that time were exceedingly scarce in all the Seribas. I had no butter or lard of any description, but the meat was very palatable when simply boiled in water. The lean goats’ meat, with its soapy flavour, was the only alternative, and that after awhile became utterly loathsome to me. For a long time I had had no vegetables at my meals, and indeed for months I had lived without any vegetable diet at all with the exception of some sorghum cakes.

During this period I met with an antelope (A. arundinacea) of a species that I had never seen before. The Bongo called it “yolo,” and although it appeared to me to differ from the leucotis merely by having horns of about one-third the length, the natives insisted that it was quite distinct; upon closer investigation I could not help acknowledging that the people were right, and that several marks of distinction did really exist: in the first place, the head of the “yolo” is all of one colour; in the next, it is deficient in the black stripe along the hind leg which is always seen in the leucotis; and the lower joints in the hind legs are never black, but of the same brown colour as the rest of the body. Again, the two animals are distinguished by their habit, for while the “yolos” are found only in pairs frequenting the bush forests in the vicinity of the rivers, the leucotis are observed in groups (sometimes even in large herds of several dozen), and haunt, not the forests, but the open valleys through which the rivers flow. It was highly interesting to notice the keen accuracy with which the instinct of the natives had taught them to discriminate between species of which the general resemblances were so predominating; the droppings of the animals as they move from place to place are quite sufficient to enable these observers of nature to distinguish one kind of antelope from another.

Hunting reed-rats.

HUNTING REED-RATS.