Chapter IV. Getting Good Sport—Life in the Wild
From Baden-Powell, What Scouts Can Do: More Yarns, 1921

Part Two: On the March — Camping — Hunting — Fire-Lighting — Initiation of Boys — Discipline — Chivalry — Salutation of Friendship — Totem — Signalling —The Rally — Elephant Hunter and Scout — Two Narrow Escapes — The Boy Hunter —The End of a Great Career.

ON THE MARCH

Zulus on the march form always a fine sight, and I shall never forget as long as I live the first time I saw a Zulu impi (army) on the move.

Well, as a matter of fact, I heard it before I saw it. For the moment I thought that a church organ was playing, when the wonderful sound of their singing came to my ears from a neighbouring valley.

Then three or four long lines of brown warriors appeared moving in single file behind their indunas (chiefs), all with their black and white plumes tossing, kilts swaying, assegais flashing in the sun, and their great piebald ox-hide shields swinging in time together.

The Ingonyama chorus played on the organ would give you a good idea of their music as it swelled out from four thousand lusty throats. At a given moment every man would bang his shield with his knobkerry (club) and it gave out a noise like a thunderclap.

At times they would all prance like horses, or give a big bound in the air exactly together. It was a wonderful sight, and their drill was perfect.

Behind the army came a second army of umfaans (boys), carrying on their heads the rolled-up grass sleeping-mats, wooden pillows, and water-gourds of the men.

These boys, by going on the march and looking on at battles, giving first aid to the wounded, and cooking the men’s food, were all learning how to become good warriors later on.

They were the Boy Scouts of their nation.

CAMPING

On reaching the spot for camp the men built their scherns (lean-to shelters of brushwood made in a wide horseshoe form so that a company of men could lie with their heads under the shelter and their feet towards the fire).

HUNTING

The men would then sally out to hunt game for food. Some would track a deer, and clothing themselves in grass would creep up to within distance for throwing an assegai at it, and then, rushing in, would dispatch it with the broad-bladed stabbing spear, uttering at the same time their fierce stabbing cry of Chuggu-chuggu.

Others would set traps with a noose made of twine attached to a sapling which was bent over to form the spring.

Also, a usual method was for a number of men to go out in a wide circle and gradually close in, driving the game before them in to the centre and then spearing the buck as they tried to escape.

FIRE-LIGHTING

The umfaans meantime collected wood and water and lit fires by using fire-drills worked between the palms of their hands. The cooking was of a very simple kind. Mealies, that is, Indian corn, was boiled in a round pot and made into porridge, while the meat of the animals secured in the hunt was cut into slabs like beef steaks and skewered on an assegai until the weapon was crowded up with meat. It was then stuck with its point in the ground alongside the fire, and as the meat got warmed it was supposed to be sufficiently cooked for eating purposes.

INITIATION OF BOYS

The induna, with some of the older ringkops, that is, warriors who by their prowess earned the right to become married men with property and wore a black ring of rank on their heads received the boys of the tribe who were old enough to become warriors and gave them a lot of advice as to how they were to behave in action, how to use their weapons, how to tackle wild animals, and warned them that they must never retreat.

If they came back from an expedition defeated, they would have to surrender their arms and have their necks broken by the women of their tribe, and their motto was:

"If we go forward we die,
If we come back we die;
Best to go forward and die."

DISCIPLINE

The discipline of the Zulus is very strict, and death is the punishment for almost any offence against the laws of the tribe.

Thus, when two warriors quarrelled over their food and one of them stabbed the other slightly, the attacker was brought before the induna for trial.

The induna pointed out that by injuring a fellow warrior he was acting as an enemy to the tribe and could not therefore be permitted to live. He would be taken away and handed over to the women, one of whom would take his chin and the back of his head between her two hands as she stood behind him and break his neck.

CHIVALRY

In another case the young warrior was wearing a lion’s mane as his head-dress, which showed that he had single-handed fought and killed a lion with his assegai.

In consequence of this the induna said that in his case since he had proved himself exceptionally brave in the face of danger, he would probably do so again in action against an enemy, and he would be of value to the tribe. His valour therefore outweighed his want of discipline, and he was pardoned.

During the trial the warriors all sat round in a ring on the ground grunting together in unison about once every two seconds as a sign that they were interested and agreed with what the induna was saying. The moment he gave his verdict of acquittal they all sprang to their feet and raised the right hand, shouting the word inkosi (chief), meaning approval.

SALUTATION OF FRENDSHIP

The pardoned man then knelt before the induna and kissed the palms of both his hands, which he had held out to him, and then sprang to his feet in his turn and shouted, " Inkosi."

TOTEM

The totem standard was then brought forward, and the pardoned man, having assumed his shield and assegai, saluted the totem and promised good behaviour and duty to the tribe in the future.

SIGNALING

Then came the call to the tribe by smoke signals, drumming, and sounds on the koodoo’s horn, and the men at once prepared for action.

The impi, on moving off, did so in a very peculiar way. The young, light-footed warriors ran off in a single file in a crouching position, all hissing through their teeth, to take up their position for the charge, while the older men, the ringkops, formed what was called the " chest " of the army, that was the central solid part of it which pressed forward to put superior weight into the fight when necessary.

THE RALLY

Thus, with the chest advancing slowly in the centre and the two "horns," as they were called, of active runners coming in from both sides, the charge was made in a horseshoe form, every man yelling at the top of his voice as they rushed to the central point as we do in our rallies.

ELEPHANT HUNTER AND SCOUT. TWO NARROW ESCAPES

It was at Capetown, very many years ago, that I first met the great elephant hunter, Selous. He was a small man, who would not strike you at first sight as being anything out of the common. But what I noticed at once about him was his wonderfully keen, clear eye and his big, deep chest. He had then only just got back to civilisation after his tremendous feat of escaping alone from a hostile tribe north of the Zambesi.

It was chiefly thanks to that keen eye and his quick sight, and to the strong heart and lungs within that mighty chest that he was enabled to get safely away.

I have already told you the story of that amazing adventure in Scouting for Boys.

The next time that I saw him was up in Rhodesia, when he had just had another escape, this time accompanied by his wife.

They were at that time living on their farm some thirty miles from Buluwayo. On their land was a kraal, or village, of native huts inhabited by Matabele natives. One day, when he was away from home, some of the men came up from the village and asked Mrs. Selous if she could lend them a few axes. She did so, and they grinned their thinks with particularly meaning grins, and went back to their huts. She little thought that they were borrowing the axes for the purpose of disarming her and her husband, and of murdering them both with them later on!

Presently Selous came galloping home. He urged his wife at once to saddle her horse and to mount—the natives were "up" in rebellion all over the country. In a few minutes, like a good frontierswoman, she was ready and mounted, and they rode off from their home towards the town.

Before they had gone many yards they heard a tumult behind them, and ere they were out of sight of their home they saw dense clouds of smoke arising from it as the natives, baulked of their prey , set the whole place on fire.

THE BOY HUNTER

Selous had first gone out to South Africa directly after he left school, when he was nineteen years old, filled with the one idea of becoming a big-game hunter. Rhodesia was at that time called Matabeleland, and was owned by the fierce native chief Lobengula and his far-famed Matabele warriors. There was plenty of big game in the country, but Lobengula would not give white men leave to hunt it, But when this mere boy came along and asked permission, the chief laughed and said that he was such a child he might have his wish.

The old chief was very much surprised to find that, in a short time, Selous proved himself not only a very brave and clever hunter, but that he was far better than any of the best warriors and hunters that the tribe could produce.

Selous had marvellous endurance. He could run mile after mile following up elephants; he was a wonderful tracker, and a nailing good shot with the rifle. He could always manage with very little food; by being always in fit condition, and never having drunk anything stronger than water, he needed no drink; he could get what he wanted to eat by shooting and cooking a bird or animal. He always wore shorts, as giving him freedom for his legs. He never smoked cigarettes or any kind of tobacco, so he kept his wind, and could easily outrun even the quick-footed natives (and they can run forty miles in a day!).

He was the truest type of Scout that you could find anywhere. No man has shot so many elephants, or so many lions, as he has done.

And when at last he gave up his wild life and returned to England he found he could never stay at home for long. Almost every year saw him somewhere or other shooting big game. One year it might be the Rocky Mountains, the next it was East Africa, then Alaska or the Soudan.

Once, when he was in my room, he saw there a pair of horns of a kind of antelope which he had not got in his collection. He at once noted down the name of the place where I had got them—it was somewhere in South-East Africa—and off he went, and was not satisfied till he had got a pair likewise.

That was the kind of man he was—always ready to go off on an adventure. And yet he was, like a Scout, very quiet and modest about what he had done; he never boasted or talked about the-feats he had performed.

When he could not go big game shooting he would go in for watching birds and noting their habits, collecting their eggs, and so on. He had a charming home at Worplesdon, in Surrey, where he had built a museum to hold the specimens of all the different kinds of animals he had hunted—and many a Boy Scout has spent a happy day looking on the wonderful great beasts of the jungle there collected.

THE END OF A GREAT CAREER

But when war came Selous could not stay idly at home although he was sixty-three years of age he "joined up," and was soon at the front in East Africa. Here, serving as an officer in the Royal Fusiliers, when all the officers with him were down with fever and sickness this hardened veteran was as fit as a fiddle and doing grand work. In September he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order "for conspicuous gallantry, resource, and endurance."

On January 8th this splendid Scout fell—killed in action, fighting for his country.

A fitting end to an adventurous life, and one that he would have wished for!

He was the finest Scout of our time.

Baden-Powell, What Scouts Can Do: More Yarns, 1921

		Chapter IV. Part One: Knowing the Language — Deduction — Why He Was Fat and Rich — Mountineering: The Right Way to Climb Hills — Maxim for Scouts — Observation — Close to the Enemy — What the Indian Saw — An Envelope for a Boy — African Tribes
		From Chapter VII: "Stalking and the Scout’s Staff"
		From Chapter VII: "The Swastika"
		From Chapter VIII: "Biking in Bosnia"
		Table of Contents

		The Baden-Powell Library. A Selection of excerpts from the works of Sir Robert Baden-Powell and works relating to his life and career
		Sir Robert Baden-Powell, Founder of the World Scout Movement, Chief Scout of the World. A Home Page for the Founder. Links Relating to Baden-Powell on the Pine Tree Web and elsewhere. Text Only Index.

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Chapter IV. Getting Good Sport—Life in the Wild From Baden-Powell, What Scouts Can Do: More Yarns, 1921

Chapter IV. Getting Good Sport—Life in the Wild
From Baden-Powell, What Scouts Can Do: More Yarns, 1921