The buffalo's wide bosses
are a helmet to his brain, and the body shot is always chancy.
The beast tosses his victim, or tramples him, or pushes him
against a tree to crush him like a fly.
He who would get his trophy, however, is not always-perhaps is
not generally-forced into the thicket to get it. When not much
disturbed, buffaloes are in the habit of grazing out into the
open just before dark; and of returning to their thicket cover
only well after sunrise. If the hunter can arrange to meet his
herd at such a time, he stands a very good chance of getting a
clear shot. The job then requires merely ordinary caution and
manoeuvring; and the only danger, outside the ever-present one
from the wounded beast, is that the herd may charge over him
deliberately. Therefore it is well to keep out of sight.
The difficulty generally is to locate your beasts. They wander
all night, and must be blundered upon in the early morning before
they have drifted back into the thickets. Sometimes, by sending
skilled trackers in several directions, they can be traced to
where they have entered cover. A messenger then brings the white
man to the place, and every one tries to guess at what spot the
buffaloes are likely to emerge for their evening stroll. It is
remarkably easy to make a wrong guess, and the remaining daylight
is rarely sufficient to repair a mistake. And also, in the case
of a herd ranging a wide country with much tall grass and several
drinking holes, it is rather difficult, without very good luck,
to locate them on any given night or morning. A few herds, a very
few, may have fixed habits, and so prove easy hunting.
These difficulties, while in no way formidable, are real enough
in their small way; but they are immensely increased when the
herds have been often disturbed. Disturbance need not necessarily
mean shooting. In countries unvisited by white men often the
pastoral natives will so annoy the buffalo by shoutings and other
means, whenever they appear near the tame cattle, that the huge
beasts will come practically nocturnal. In that case only the
rankest luck will avail to get a man a chance in the open. The
herds cling to cover until after sundown and just at dusk; and
they return again very soon after the first streaks of dawn. If
the hunter just happens to be at the exact spot, he may get a
twilight shot when the glimmering ivory of his front sight is
barely visible. Otherwise he must go into the thicket.
As an illustration of the first condition might be instanced an
afternoon on the Tana. The weather was very hot. We had sent
three lots of men out in different directions, each under the
leadership of one of the gunbearers, to scout, while we took it
easy in the shade of our banda, or grass shelter, on the bank of
the river.
