Page 62 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

distance they lost when the freshly wounded animal escaped
their ring. With the first light of dawn they are on their way, fol­
lowing the faint spoor with scarcely a check, noting where the

animal has stopped to rest with increasing frequency, and, as they
go, scavenging almost automatically for anything edible, pounc­
ing on lizards, flushing a lark from its fledglings, or pausing

briefly to grub up a tuber.
They are small dark men, these bushmen of the veldt, almost
pygmies in stature, thin but incredibly wiry, and they chatter

among themselves as they lope along the trail. They are in high
humor, for they know that this time their hunt will be successful.
Before they started out five days ago the eldest of them had

drawn a giraffe on the wall of the temple-cave. There is no doubt
that it was that drawing which brought within range of their

arrows the giraffe they now follow and that the drawing is still
doing its work to bring the animal down.
Towards the afternoon they sight their quarry, standing with

drooping neck and wide-straddled legs in the shade of a clump of
trees. As they approach, it tries to run but stumbles and then
wearily turns to face them. They stand at a distance, out of reach

of the still dangerous hoofs, and aim their arrows carefully at the
area of the heart. Even so, six arrows strike before one is success­
ful, and the great animal quivers, runs two strides and falls,

twitching, to the ground. The hunters close in, to deliver the coup
de grace with their stone knives. And while three remain to skin

and partition the dead animal with the same knives, the fourth
sets off on the long journey to bring the rest of the family group.
For such a quantity of meat cannot be transported to the

family at its semipermanent home by the water hole below the
outcrop ridge. The family must, as so often before, move to the

meat. Some of it can be sun-dried for later use, but most must be
eaten on the spot during the few days before it will become too
high even for an experienced stomach. They will gorge while

they can, and starve when they must. That is the way of the
hunter.

So the family, the women and children and the old men,
break camp when they hear the word. Their only possessions are
a skin or two for the shelters, a bundle of arrows, and a basket