THE HY^.NA DOG lOI 



hours! In Nubia, where these hounds subsist by- 

 hunting gazelles, they have, according to Dr. Riippell, 

 attacked human beings; mounted wayfarers are said, 

 however, to be safe. Some two years ago (say 1903) 

 a white man on the march in the North-East Trans- 

 vaal had his pack donkeys attacked by wild hounds, 

 which he only beat off after much expenditure of 

 ammunition. Few sensations could be more un- 

 pleasantly thrilling than those of a traveller pursued 

 by these dogs, recalling in his own unfortunate 

 person Tennyson's Sir Tristram, who 



Last in a roky hollow, belling, heard 



The hounds of Mark, and felt the goodly hounds 



Yelp at his heart. 



Truly the ferocious blood-thirstiness and truculent 

 ferocity of the Cape hunting-dog presents "Nature 

 red in tooth and claw" in a very terrible aspect. 



There is, however, a reverse to the medal. The 

 wild hound has the virtues of its qualities. Its half- 

 human intelligence, its painstaking self-reliance, and 

 its esprit de corps render it pro tanto interesting 

 and almost attractive. Moreover, when taken very 

 young it will become tame, and might even be 

 employed, like the hunting leopard, to chase game 

 for the benefit of its owner. Dr. Schweinfurth has 

 recorded that at Kurkur, in Central Africa, he saw a 

 tame hunting-dog led by a cord; and Livingstone 

 has stated that the natives habitually train it for this 

 purpose. The wild hounds rest during the daytime 



