THE BLUE WILDEBEEST 9 1 



This description of a heavy-headed, semi-bovine 

 animal applies very well to the blue wildebeest, 

 and the fact of its face being decorated with a 

 " flowing mane " (frontal brush of hair) precludes 

 the possibility of its having been a buffalo : in fact, 

 there is no animal, save the blue wildebeest, 

 which would fit Pliny's description. In spite of the 

 stories of the katoblepas (which is noticed by Elian 

 as well as Pliny), nothing more was recorded of 

 the animal for hundreds of years, when its existence 

 was reported to Europeans from the opposite end 

 of the African continent, and under a new name. 

 Towards the end of the eighteenth century, 

 when Cape Colony was springing up as a flourishing 

 offshoot of the Empire, and year by year becoming 

 from its advancing civilisation more and more 

 differentiated from the wild regions of the far 

 interior, vao"ue rumours beran to be current of the 

 existence of a mysterious animal — the Baas or 

 Bearded Ox — said to exist in the almost unknown 

 country beyond the limits of the Colony. The 

 baas was stated to have short horns, to be bearded 

 on chin and breast, and to be of a gray colour : 

 in this animal one recognises the katoblepas of 

 Pliny — the blue wildebeest of modern times. In 

 1 80 1 Europeans at last came definitely in touch 

 with the remarkable creature which had excited 

 the wonder of the ancients, for in that year some 

 Dutch hunters shot a specimen near Patanie, and 



