VULTURES AS SEXTONS? 123 to remain in camp. Colvin and my brother William were the two who remained behind. It was four o'clock before we started, and we did not get back till after nine. Although we made all possible haste, it was almost dusk before we arrived at the spot where the boy stated he had last seen him. We searched everywhere, until darkness compelled us to desist. But we could find no trace of him, and all we saw were some thirty or forty huge vultures, sitting together on the palm-trees ; and the sickenins: fear came over us, that he was dead, and that these birds, which in Africa so often act as sextons, had already devoured his remains. This seemed but too probable ; for, in these parts of Africa, it is usually only a matter of a few minutes, or even seconds, for these birds to collect, after one has shot an antelope or any other kind of game.

I remember, the first time I travelled in the Soudan, shooting two ariel, which fell not over a hundred, or a hundred and fifty, yards apart ; and yet although, when I shot them, I could see no vultures about, by the time I had secured the head of one, and had come up to the other, its head was already destroyed by the vultures, which had commenced to devour it. When we shot more than one animal at a time, we always sent some one to keep the vultures off one, while the men were engaged in cutting up the other.

On our return to camp there was a great discussion among our men, as to whether the people who had plundered us were Tigre Abyssinians or Dembelas. We ourselves felt almost sure at the time, from the direction in which they came, that they were Dembelas ; and we afterwards established the fact. I do not think that the attack was premeditated. In all this part of Africa, there is a considerable tract of country which divides each tribe, and which it is difficult to assign to either, both of them being afraid to inhabit it.