The lion hunter had the courage to provoke buffalos. He could not run fast because he was fat, but he knew the habits of the animal.
The cow did not pursue them. After a few steps, she realized that she would not catch up, so she stopped and dejectedly returned to the herd.
This was characteristic of the African buffalos—they did not want to be too far away from the group. They were very focused on the herd as they lacked security alone in the wild.
As a result, African buffalos had the greatest population of large wild animals on the African continent. As long as buffalo lived in groups, they were not easily provoked, even by animals such as lions.
When buffalos became isolated from the herd, they were not far from dying. Hyenas, lions, leopards, crocodiles—all these types of carnivores preyed on them.
When buffalos separated from the herd they felt insecure and therefore became violent, attacking any creatures that they saw.
After breaking away from the buffalo, Li Du couldn’t help complaining, “Man, are you looking for trouble? It’s a good thing we’re fast—it would have caught us.”
They hadn’t taken Sophie with them on this trip. She had no interest in hunting and didn’t feel like suffering the wild with them, so she’d stayed in the camp.
If Sophie were with them, she would have probably been chased by a female buffalo.
The lion hunter laughed. “I’m not looking for trouble, Li. Just wait and see. I’ll take you to hunt lions this evening.”
Li Du reacted quickly, immediately understanding what he meant. “You’ll use the dead body of the young buffalo to attract wild animals?”
The lion hunter winked at him. “You got it.”
Led by Abdo, they passed a few waterholes surrounded by many wild animals. Eventually, they entered a small, hilly land. Dozens of short mounds of earth appeared before them with weeds, bushes, and small trees dotting their tops.
He waved his hand and mumbled one word, pointing to the mound in front of him.
He spoke in Zulu, which Li Du could not understand. He looked at the lion hunter.
The lion hunter was excited and said, “Cape porcupine!”
The Cape porcupine, also known as the South African porcupine, was the largest rodent in South Africa and the largest porcupine in the world.
He had never seen a porcupine. He had only heard of them.
Following Abdo’s instructions, Li Du carefully looked for the animal but saw nothing.
The lion hunter laughed. “You can’t spot him, can you? Only we excellent Zulu hunters can spot prey.”
Unconvinced, Li Du released the little bug—he soon found the porcupine in the middle of the hill.
No wonder his eyes hadn’t picked up on it. The porcupine was well-camouflaged. It was lying on its stomach in a pile of tall weeds, pressing down on something like a potato with its front paws.
This was a large porcupine, 70 or 80 centimeters long, with a dark brown front half and a black back. It had thick, straight spikes standing up like weeds on its back, hips, and tail. These spikes were multicolored black, brown and white, which made the creature difficult to see from a distance.
Porcupines were also called hedgehogs. The name suggested pigs covered with spines, but when Li Du looked closely, he found that this creature didn’t look like a pig at all. Not to mention that they were covered from their backs to their tails with arrow-like spikes that pigs lacked, porcupines had fat bodies, sharp teeth, and faces like mice. When they bit, they used their front teeth to eat just like mice did.
After spotting the porcupine, Li Du started to retract the little bug. It flew through the side of the hill and he saw two people lying in the weeds!
The two men were dark, lean, and covered in weeds. One had a bow and arrow, and the other held a javelin with his eyes fixed on the porcupine.
Apparently, they were native hunters on the African savannah, targeting the porcupine.
Seeing this, Li Du smiled and said to the lion hunter, “Zulu hunters are excellent, but I have excellent vision. I see the porcupine. In addition, I see two hunters.”
His words stunned the lion hunter. “Two hunters?”
Li Du looked at him with intentional surprise. “Did you spot them?”
He pointed to the place where they were hiding. “Look carefully, there they are. They have their eyes on the porcupine.”
The lion hunter wondered, “Really? Man, are you kidding?”
“Hadza,” said Abdo.
“Hadza? What does it mean?” asked Li Du.
The lion hunter said, “He’s confirming your claim that there are people there—they are hunters of the Hadzabe tribe.”
It dawned on him that when he’d been learning about South Africa there had been some information about the Hadzabe tribe. They were a primitive hunting tribe—not farming, not business, but every generation had focused on hunting in the grasslands.
They were the gypsies of Africa, but they followed animals on their migration routes. The Hadza tribes originally to belonged to Tanzania and Mozambique, but because Mozambique bordered South Africa, some of them had also drifted here.
Like other migratory peoples around the world, the Hadza were low-key and tolerant, so while they were technically invading, South Africans hadn’t chased them out.
But they were outsiders, and most South Africans didn’t like them because they competed with locals for resources.
Knowing that the Hadza were ready to ambush the porcupine, the lion hunter snorted coldly, raised his gun to the sky and pulled the trigger. Bang!
The loud gunfire sent birds flying and the porcupine into a panic. It threw the fruit under its paw and hurried into the weeds.
As soon as the shots were fired, the Hadzabe hunters knew they could not ambush the porcupine and attacked quickly.
A javelin flew in the direction of the porcupine’s escape, landing right where it had just been. The animal was so frightened that it froze for a moment, then turned its head and ran away.
The moment it was stunned, the other hunter shot an arrow and hit the porcupine in the back.
It was a joint attack, and the purpose of the javelin was not to kill the porcupine but to frighten it and buy time for the archer.
But Hadza hunters used bows and arrows which were usually not lethal. Instead of falling to the ground dead, the porcupine continued to flee, dragging the arrow behind it.
The hill was steep, and the porcupine, fat enough to roll down the side, tumbled under his terrified feet.
After rolling down the hill, it still wasn’t dead. It reflexively stood to escape and ran toward Li Du and the others.
