"No, not yet," was the reply, "but I've hunted hartbeest and gemsbok, and one day I stopped a young buffalo by the aid of old David, the brindle-ox, and got him, too. So I thought it would be no harm to try him on a giraffe."
"Accept my congratulations, please," said Jack; "I didn't know so much could be done in the hunting-field with oxen. We have some saddle-oxen in our outfit, but haven't used them yet. The Kafirs ride them to keep them in training, and we are holding them in reserve in case of any mishap to our horses."
"Of course you are aware," said Mrs. Roberts, "that not a few African hunters have found saddle-oxen of great advantage in their journeys."
"Oh yes, I'm aware of that," said I; "Andersson, who discovered Lake Ngami, had a saddle-ox named Spring, which he rode over two thousand miles, and he naturally became much attached to the animal."
The saddle-oxen of Mrs. Roberts and Miss Boland were good-natured beasts, and had evidently received kind treatment. The ladies told us that they made it a point of having the oxen brought up every day and saddled, and they always talked to the beasts and petted them, so that they got along famously. "They were shy at first," said Miss Boland, "but gradually got over their shyness when they found that not only were they not hurt, but they generally received some little delicacy to eat, provided we had it to give to them. We usually ride them for half an hour or so in the morning, and sometimes take them out for stalking game. They enter into the spirit of it fairly well; this is particularly the case with David, and if he could only handle a gun we might send him out alone and count on his bringing in something. This one," said she, again pointing to the brindle, "is David; and the other—the yellow one—is Goliath."
"I hope they don't entertain for each other sentiments like those which prevailed between the original parties with those names," remarked Harry, as the lady paused.
"No, I don't think they do," was the reply; "they get along very well together. Goliath is the more powerful of the two, and keeps David under control."
The ladies had their saddle-horses as well as their saddle-oxen, and the saddles for both sort of beasts were made man-fashion. We three fellows made no comment whatever upon the style of saddles, leaving it to the ladies to mention the subject if they chose to do so. Mrs. Roberts was the first to speak of it, and said they adopted them by the advice of the wife of the missionary at Walvisch Bay, who had made two or three journeys up-country.
"We came out from England," said she, "fully equipped with riding-habits and with side-saddles, and expected to bring nothing else on our journey; but the missionary's wife urged us so strongly that we each bought a man's saddle, and have used it, too. We can mount and dismount without assistance, and we find it far more convenient for hunting-purposes than the side-saddle. As we have traveled alone all the time, we had no neighbors to make comments upon our mode of travel or concerning our way of riding, and the first time we have used our side-saddles and riding-habits in a month and more was when we accepted the invitation to visit your camp; when we got out our habits that morning we found them a good deal creased, and thought you would see that they had not been used recently."
I remarked that I noticed the creases in the habits, and thought the garments were new ones, brought out for that occasion. We all commended their good common sense in adopting the man-fashion of riding while in South Africa, and while we were doing so one of our trackers arrived with reports of the giraffes.