The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, And Explorations of the Nile SourcesBaker, Samuel White, Sir
History
The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, And Explorations of the Nile Sources
Baker, Samuel White, Sir
Albert, Lake (Congo and Uganda); Nile River; Sudan
The sickness of the people continued for about an hour, during which
time all kinds of invectives were hurled against Ibrahimawa, and his
botany was termed a gigantic humbug. From that day he was very mild in
his botanical conversation.
On the following morning we crossed the last range of rocky hills, and
descended to the Latooka valley. Up to this point, we had seen no game;
but we had now arrived in the game country, and shortly after our
descent from the rocks we saw a herd of about twenty Tetel (hartebeest).
Unfortunately, just as I dismounted for the purpose of stalking them,
the red flags of the Turks attracted the attention of a large party of
baboons, who were sitting on the rocks, and they commenced their hoarse
cry of alarm, and immediately disturbed the Tetel. One of the men, in
revenge, fired a long shot at a great male, who was sitting alone upon a
high rock, and by chance the ball struck him in the head. He was an
immense specimen of the Cynocephalus, about as large as a mastiff, but
with a long brown mane like that of the lion. This mane is much prized
by the natives as an ornament. He was immediately skinned, and the hide
was cut into long strips about three inches broad: the portion of mane
adhering had the appearance of a fringe; each strip was worn as a scarf;
thus one skin will produce about eight or ten ornaments.
I sent my men to camp, and, accompanied by Richarn, mounted on my horse
"Mouse," I rode through the park-like ground in quest of game. I saw
varieties of antelopes, including the rare and beautiful maharif; but
all were so wild, and the ground so open, that I could not get a shot.
This was the more annoying, as the maharif was an antelope that I
believed to be a new species. It had often disappointed me; for although
I had frequently seen them on the south-west frontier of Abyssinia, I
had never been able to procure one, owing to their extreme shyness, and
to the fact of their inhabiting open plains, where stalking was
impossible. I had frequently examined them with a telescope, and had
thus formed an intimate acquaintance with their peculiarities. The
maharif is very similar to the roan antelope of South Africa, but is
mouse colour, with black and white stripes upon the face. The horns are
exactly those of the roan antelope, very massive and corrugated, bending
backwards to the shoulders. The withers are extremely high, which give a
peculiarly heavy appearance to the shoulders, much heightened by a large
and stiff black mane like that of a hog-maned horse. I have a pair of
horns in my possession that I obtained through the assistance of a lion,
who killed the maharif while drinking near my tent; unfortunately, the
skin was torn to pieces, and the horns and skull were all that remained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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