gel on watch up there far out of the range
of man's vision had seen the deed, and, by sinking downwards, signalled
it to his companions that were quartering the sky for fifty miles round;
for these birds prey by sight, not by smell. Down he came and down,
and long before he had reached the neighbourhood of earth other specks
appeared in the distant blue. Now he was not more than four or five
hundred yards above me, and began to wheel, floating round the place
upon his wide wings, and sinking as he wheeled. So he sank softly and
slowly until he was about a hundred and fifty feet above Hans. Then
suddenly he paused, hung quite steady for a few seconds, shut his wings
and fell like a bolt, only opening them again just before he reached the
earth.

Here he settled, tilting forward in that odd way which vultures have,
and scrambling a few awkward paces until he gained his balance. Then
he froze into immobility, gazing with in awful, stony glare at the
prostrate Hans, who lay within about fifteen feet of him. Scarcely was
this aasvogel down, when others, summoned from the depths of sky, did as
he had done. They appeared, they sank, they wheeled, always from east to
west, the way the sun travels. They hovered for a few seconds, then fell
like stones, pitched on to their beaks, recovered themselves, waddled
forward into line, and sat gazing at Hans. Soon there was a great ring
of them about him, all immovable, all gazing, all waiting for something.

Presently that something appeared in the shape of an aasvogel which was
nearly twice as big as any of the others. This was what the Boers and
the natives call the "king vulture," one of which goes with every flock.
He it is who rules the roost and also the carcase, which without his
presence and permission none dare to attack. Whether this vile fowl is
of a different species from the others, or whether he is a bird of more
vigorous growth and constitution that has outgrown the rest and thus
become their overlord, is more than I can tell. At least it is certain,
as I can testify from long and constant observation, that almost every
flock of vultures has its king.

When this particular royalty had arrived, the other aasvogels, of which
perhaps there were now fifty or sixty gathered round Hans, began to show
signs of interested animation. They looked at the king bird, they
looked at Hans, stretching out their naked red necks and winking their
brilliant eyes. I, however, did not pay p