CHAPTER XVI.. Snake Cutlets and Stews--Miss Boland Stalks a

SNAKE CUTLETS AND STEWS--MISS BOLAND STALKS A GIRAFFE--OXEN FOR HUNTING-PURPOSES.

We had a good laugh over the young lady's story, and after finishing our stroll and getting back to the tent we asked for our horses, bade our entertainers good-by--not failing to remind them of our engagement for the morrow--and then mounted and headed for home.

We stopped at the place where we captured the snake, and found, as we expected, that our men had already arrived and were skinning the reptile. It was no easy piece of work, as the body of the serpent continued to squirm, although life was really extinct. The boa-constrictor is very much like the turtle in this peculiarity, and what might appear to be cruelty in skinning the animal alive was not really so. Our men made a very good job of it, and we remained until it was completed. They followed us home with the skin of the snake, and left the body for the jackals and anything else that cared to eat it.

Jack was more than half inclined to take some pieces of the game along, so that we might have constrictor-cutlets for supper or breakfast. Harry and I opposed the idea, and told him he would have to eat alone if he did so; thereupon he abandoned the proposition. I can add by the way that I have eaten snakes of various kinds, and they are by no means bad eating, provided you are hungry and cannot get anything else.

My first experience in the serpent-eating line was on the North American plains, in a region where rattlesnakes abounded. Fresh provisions were scarce; and one day, when I was traveling with a party of mounted soldiers, we made our camp right in a colony of rattlesnakes, though we did not discover it until after all the tents had been pegged out and the camp arranged. We killed about thirty rattlers between the time we went into camp and sunset, and a dozen more were slaughtered during the night. The soldiers skinned the snakes, and served them up at breakfast under the name of "prairie-eels." Had they been called rattlesnakes I might have relucted, but as prairie-eels they were decidedly toothsome; the flesh looked like chicken, and tasted a good deal like it, too. I confess to a prejudice against eating snakes, but would rather do so any time than go downright hungry.

When we reached camp everything was quiet. Our cook had prepared us a very good supper, but after our bountiful feast with the amazons we could not do justice to it. There were, however, plenty of yawning mouths in the camp where it was welcome, and nothing was left over to be warmed up the next morning.

During the night we were disturbed by a troop of lions that tried to get into the kraal for a waltz among the oxen. They made several efforts to penetrate the thorny fence of the kraal, but were unsuccessful, though they disturbed the oxen a good deal and set them to bellowing in terror. We went out in the hope of bringing down one or more of the prowlers, but the night was so dark that we could not make out their forms distinctly. We fired where we thought we saw them, and brought forth a terrific roar, but we did not see anything drop.

Bright and early the next morning our manager began searching for the spoor of the lions, and easily made it out. He followed the retreating spoor for a good half-mile to where it led into a thicket of thorns. There he abandoned the chase, as he saw no blood upon the spoor to show that our bullets had told; and, furthermore, he had not lost any lions, as he remarked when he got back to camp. I admired his discretion, as he would have been decidedly at a disadvantage had he entered the thicket and found the lions waiting for him.

We breakfasted early in the morning, in order to be promptly at the rendezvous for the hunt with our friends. We were there on time, and so were they, and all were equipped for business. The ladies were habited as they were when I first met them in the forest--that is, incased in loose trousers and tunic, with gloves to match, and with dust-colored sola topees on their heads. They were accompanied by trackers, gun-bearers, and their after-rider, and they had brought along two dogs and two oxen as a part of their equipment.

When our salutations were over Jack apologized for being inquisitive, but said he would like to know how they proposed to utilize dogs and oxen in hunting giraffes.

"We don't know that we shall utilize them," replied Mrs. Roberts, "but we brought them along thinking they might be handy, on the principle set down by the lamented Toodles."

"You may laugh at us," said Miss Boland, "but I've done a little hunting with those oxen since we started out, and quite successfully, too."

"Have you hunted giraffes with them?" queried Jack.

"No, not yet," was the reply, "but I've hunted hartbeest and gemsbok, and one day I stopped a young buffalo by the aid of old David, the brindle-ox, and got him, too. So I thought it would be no harm to try him on a giraffe."

"Accept my congratulations, please," said Jack; "I didn't know so much could be done in the hunting-field with oxen. We have some saddle-oxen in our outfit, but haven't used them yet. The Kafirs ride them to keep them in training, and we are holding them in reserve in case of any mishap to our horses."

"Of course you are aware," said Mrs. Roberts, "that not a few African hunters have found saddle-oxen of great advantage in their journeys."

"Oh yes, I'm aware of that," said I; "Andersson, who discovered Lake Ngami, had a saddle-ox named Spring, which he rode over two thousand miles, and he naturally became much attached to the animal."

The saddle-oxen of Mrs. Roberts and Miss Boland were good-natured beasts, and had evidently received kind treatment. The ladies told us that they made it a point of having the oxen brought up every day and saddled, and they always talked to the beasts and petted them, so that they got along famously. "They were shy at first," said Miss Boland, "but gradually got over their shyness when they found that not only were they not hurt, but they generally received some little delicacy to eat, provided we had it to give to them. We usually ride them for half an hour or so in the morning, and sometimes take them out for stalking game. They enter into the spirit of it fairly well; this is particularly the case with David, and if he could only handle a gun we might send him out alone and count on his bringing in something. This one," said she, again pointing to the brindle, "is David; and the other--the yellow one--is Goliath."

"I hope they don't entertain for each other sentiments like those which prevailed between the original parties with those names," remarked Harry, as the lady paused.

"No, I don't think they do," was the reply; "they get along very well together. Goliath is the more powerful of the two, and keeps David under control."

The ladies had their saddle-horses as well as their saddle-oxen, and the saddles for both sort of beasts were made man-fashion. We three fellows made no comment whatever upon the style of saddles, leaving it to the ladies to mention the subject if they chose to do so. Mrs. Roberts was the first to speak of it, and said they adopted them by the advice of the wife of the missionary at Walvisch Bay, who had made two or three journeys up-country.

"We came out from England," said she, "fully equipped with riding-habits and with side-saddles, and expected to bring nothing else on our journey; but the missionary's wife urged us so strongly that we each bought a man's saddle, and have used it, too. We can mount and dismount without assistance, and we find it far more convenient for hunting-purposes than the side-saddle. As we have traveled alone all the time, we had no neighbors to make comments upon our mode of travel or concerning our way of riding, and the first time we have used our side-saddles and riding-habits in a month and more was when we accepted the invitation to visit your camp; when we got out our habits that morning we found them a good deal creased, and thought you would see that they had not been used recently."

I remarked that I noticed the creases in the habits, and thought the garments were new ones, brought out for that occasion. We all commended their good common sense in adopting the man-fashion of riding while in South Africa, and while we were doing so one of our trackers arrived with reports of the giraffes.

"They are about a mile to the south," said the tracker, "and you can get pretty close on them without being seen."

"Now's the chance for your experiment with your saddle-ox, Miss Boland," I said, turning to that lady.

"Very well," said she; "with your permission, gentlemen, I'll see what I can do. Am I to be commander in this hunt?"

"Certainly you are," we answered; "we await your orders."

"All right then, gentlemen, here they are: I'll lead off on David's back, you can follow on horseback two or three hundred yards behind me, and Kleinboy, my after-rider, will keep with you and bring up my horse. Let your tracker indicate to me where the giraffes are, and just before we come in sight of them I'll dismount from David's back and keep along at his side. Then we'll see what we shall see. After the first fire you can all go ahead and chase the herd in any way you like; Kleinboy can bring me my horse and take away David."

"An excellent plan of campaign," I remarked--"excellent;" and the other fellows echoed my opinion. Away went Miss Boland on David's back, preceded by the tracker who had sighted the herd of giraffes. David moved at a fast walk, and the rest of us brought up the rear, as we had been directed to do.

When they reached the foot of a slight ridge the tracker indicated that the giraffes were on the other side. Then Miss Boland dismounted, and, holding the bridle in one hand and her rifle in the other, crept along in a stooping posture on the side of the ox that was farthest away from the game.

It is proper to explain that an African ox is bridled by means of a stick, about a foot long, passed transversely through the cartilage of his nose, and held in place by a piece of cord. The reins, which are generally made of half-inch or three-eighths-inch rope, are fastened to the ends of this stick; and when he gets used to the affair he minds the helm with great readiness. The cartilage of the nose is pierced like that of an unruly bull in civilized countries, and it is very sensitive to any strain upon it.

As he neared the top of the ridge David began to pluck a little grass, as if he were out on a grazing-expedition; and he continued to feed quietly along as he passed the crest of the ridge and worked down into the hollow, where the giraffes were.

Of course we lost sight of him as he went over the ridge, not daring to show ourselves to the giraffes until we heard the sound of Miss Boland's rifle. We could only conjecture what was happening, and the time seemed long while we were waiting for the report of the weapon.

Miss Boland afterward told us that the giraffes just turned their heads toward her when David came in sight; she was peeping over his neck to see whether they took alarm or not, and also to see where to guide him. He obeyed her slightest word, or rather the slightest pull that she gave upon one or other of the reins. The giraffes took no alarm whatever, but went on with their feeding among some scattered mimosa-trees on the plain. By the aid of the ox she got within ten yards of one of the giraffes--a medium-sized cow--and then, resting the rifle over David's shoulder, and getting good aim, she put a bullet straight into the heart of the towering beast, which came to the ground instantly. Before the rest of the herd could take alarm Miss Boland fired at another giraffe, barely thirty yards away, and laid it low with a broken foreshoulder.

When we heard the reports of her rifle we came over the slope at a gallop, and away we went in pursuit of the herd. Miss Boland exchanged David for her horse as soon as the after-rider arrived, and joined in the chase with us. She lost a little time in mounting, and so we distanced her as we pursued the fleeing game.