d
like a big black sinuous branch, making off for the shelter of the wood,
while a troop of monkeys over head were grinning and chattering at the
intruders, and flights of parrots were screaming among the branches.

A sense of wildness and of vastness creeps over those who look upon
these wide plains in their native grandeur and stillness--a feeling of
freedom, and of liberty, and at the same time of respect and adoration
for the great Creator of all. Deeply feeling this for several minutes,
the three gazed in silence, then as the distant shout of the drivers
came on the breeze, the nearest troops of antelope stopped feeding,
raised their heads, sniffed the air, and moved off--the next taking
alarm in the same way--until the whole plain, far as the eye could roam,
was covered with droves of antelope, galloping here and there, and
crossing each other in wild confusion. It looked like an intricate and
mazy dance, the performers in the wild ballet on the plains of South
Africa being the antelope.

"His are the cattle on a thousand hills," exclaimed the missionary,
breaking silence at last, and reverently uncovering himself.

"Some of them shall be mine before long," replied the matter-of-fact
soldier; "if you will get the chief to ride back and stop those fellows
shouting."

"I'll do so myself," answered the missionary. "I will halt them here,
give you an hour's advance, and then move straight forward for the
Limpopo, where we will outspan. We want meat in the camp."

"And shall have it. Come along, Masheesh," cried Hughes, elated beyond
measure, and letting the Arab he rode feel the spur, he dashed away
followed by the Matabele brandishing his assegai. It looked very easy
to procure meat among such countless herds, but an hour of violent
exertion proved it was not so. The Arab was untrained, could not be
brought to a standstill instantly, and was fidgety, so that it was
impossible to aim from the saddle. Shy and timid, the hartebeest moved
along in herds seldom exceeding ten in number, ever led by some old and
cautious buck.

Of a yellowish orange colour, striped with black under the horns and
down the forehead, they had seemed heavy, lumbering animals. The thighs
and extremities were tinged with black, and the horns most curiously
formed, curving at first backward and outward, but subsequently sweeping
inwards, the eyes being like most of the antelope tribe, large and full.
Ever on the watch, the hunters