108 WILD LIFE AMONGST BEASTIES His immediate reply was *' Garush " (coin)—that all the English had plenty of money. And why did he want money when he had all else ? The cat came out of the bag ; possessed of one wife, he wanted a number, and it was futile to endeavour to disabuse him of the notion of the universal wealth of the English people or of the desirability of emulating the chiefs of the herds of game we see.

At Khor-um-Asal a fine waterbuck anticipated our advance and cantered away. Many herds of does and immature males had been seen, and the prevalence of the sportsman had left its mark.

But rounding a long oval maya, Fadl el Mullah gave the quick signal ; I hastily threw myself off the mule, and saw on the far side a herd, including two full-grown buck. Though across the narrowest portion, they were out of range, and a long circuit was taken with the usual anxieties caused by change of position and veering wind. Once they looked up, startled by a scuttling wart-hog, but soon settled down to graze once more.

Worming my way over a small wooded knoll, I lay quite still as the buck came near, fired, and missed unaccountably. I sprang to my feet as the buck bolted off, let loose my second barrel, and brought him down dead as a stone.

Here again my squeamishness was laughed at, when the Arabs ate red, raw tit-bits, steaming hot, from the poor buck's body.

My mule was generally tractable ; the exceptions