The nearest
hunter, raising a shining metal staff about three and a half feet in
length (having a crystal cylinder at the hinder end, about six inches
in circumference, and occupying about one-third the entire length of
the weapon), levelled it at the beast. A flash as of lightning darted
through the air, and the creature rolled over. Another flash from a
similar weapon in the hands of another hunter followed. By this time,
however, my bird was entirely unmanageable, and what happened I
learned afterwards from Ergimo. Neither of the two shots had wounded
the creature, though the near passage of the first had for a moment
stunned and overthrown him. His rush among the party dispersed them
all, but each being able to send forth from his piece a second flash
of lightning, the monster was mortally wounded before they fairly
started in pursuit of their scared birds, which--their attention being
called by the roar of the animal, by the crash accompanying each
flash, and probably above all by the restlessness of my own _caldecta_
in their midst--had flown off to some distance.
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