Abon Do Whispered, "You Missed Him, I Heard The
Bullet Strike The Tree;" I Shook My Head, And Quickly
Re-Loaded--It Was Impossible To Miss At That Distance, And I Knew
That I Had Fired Steadily.
Hardly had I rammed the bullet down,
when, with a sudden thump, down fell the buffalo upon his side,
and, rolling over upon his back, he gave a few tremendous
struggles, and lay dead.
Great caution should be invariably used in approaching a fallen
buffalo and all other dangerous animals, as they are apt to
recover sufficiently, upon seeing the enemy, to make a last
effort to attack, which is generally more serious than any other
phase of the hunt. We accordingly pitched a few large stones at
him to test the reality of death, and then walked up and examined
him. The Reilly No. 10 had gone quite through the neck, but had
missed a vital part. The little Fletcher had made a clean and
minute hole exactly through the shoulder, and upon opening the
body we found the ball sticking in the ribs on the opposite side,
having passed through the very centre of the lungs.
The aggageers now carefully flayed it, and divided the tough hide
into portions accurately measured for shields. One man galloped
back to direct the two water-camels that were following in our
tracks, while others cut up the buffalo, and prepared the usual
disgusting feast by cutting up the reeking paunch, over which
they squeezed the contents of the gall-bladder, and consumed the
whole, raw and steaming.* On the arrival of the camels they were
quickly loaded, and we proceeded to fire the grass on our return
to camp.
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