The combatants, however, were engaged in no mock encounter to gratify the curiosity of an idle crowd; nor did they apprehend that there were spectators present.
The contest in which they were engaged was a _real_ fight; and their angry roars, their hurried rushing backwards and forwards, and the loud cracking of their skulls as they came together, proved them to be in earnest.
That the animals were buffaloes was apparent at first sight.

Their great bulk, the lion-like form of their bodies, but, above all, their bellowing, that resembled the "routing" of enraged bulls, convinced our young hunters that they could be no other than buffaloes--and buffaloes they were--a "gang" of old buffalo bulls engaged in one of their terrible tournaments.
I have said that our hunters, on first seeing them, were influenced by feelings of terror.

But why so?
What was there in the appearance of a herd of buffaloes to frighten them, since that was the very thing they had so long been in search of?
Was it the angry attitudes of the animals, or their loud roaring?
Nothing of the sort?
No.

That was not what had inspired them with fear, or, as I should rather term it, with awe.

No.