I Had Previously Sent Off Sekwebu
With Orders To Spare The Calf.
It ran very fast, but neither young nor old
ever enter into a gallop; their quickest pace is only a sharp walk.
Before Sekwebu could reach them, the calf had taken refuge in the water,
and was killed.
The pace of the dam gradually became slower. She turned
with a shriek of rage, and made a furious charge back among the men.
They vanished at right angles to her course, or sideways,
and, as she ran straight on, she went through the whole party,
but came near no one except a man who wore a piece of cloth on his shoulders.
Bright clothing is always dangerous in these cases. She charged
three or four times, and, except in the first instance,
never went farther than 100 yards. She often stood after she had
crossed a rivulet, and faced the men, though she received fresh spears.
It was by this process of spearing and loss of blood that she was killed;
for at last, making a short charge, she staggered round and sank down dead
in a kneeling posture. I did not see the whole hunt, having been
tempted away by both sun and moon appearing unclouded. I turned from
the spectacle of the destruction of noble animals, which might be made
so useful in Africa, with a feeling of sickness, and it was not relieved
by the recollection that the ivory was mine, though that was the case.
I regretted to see them killed, and more especially the young one,
the meat not being at all necessary at that time; but it is right to add
that I did not feel sick when my own blood was up the day before.
We ought, perhaps, to judge those deeds more leniently in which we ourselves
have no temptation to engage.
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