THE HARTEBEEST IN SOUTH AFRICA 227 



native. I well remember as a boy, when reading 

 the works of Moffatt, Gordon Gumming, and others, 

 puzzling over the singular names of this and other 

 African animals. The name " hartebeest " is, of 

 course, easily explainable. It is of Gape Dutch 

 origin, and literally signifies " the stag-ox." There 

 are, of course, strong points of resemblance to the 

 deer about the hartebeest, but it is difficult to 

 understand where the likeness to cattle comes in. 

 However, many of the old Boer names are equally 

 puzzling ; " wildebeest," " wild cattle," is not bad ; 

 but " gemsbok," literally " chamois-goat," is a quite 

 impossible comparison ; and " eland," '' the elk," 

 almost as bad. Yet, these quaint old Dutch names 

 have become so rooted in the soil of South Africa, 

 and recall such glories of mammalian abundance in 

 those wonderful days of the past when great game 

 swarmed throughout the land, that they rise to the 

 tongue in a way perfectly natural. One accepts 

 them unhesitatingly, yet with a feeling of regretful 

 pleasure for the kindling associations they carry 

 with them. 



And the gallant hartebeest, with his old-fashioned 

 air and old-world name, seen, as I have seen him, 

 feeding quietly in small scattered troops upon some 

 vast, yellow, grass-grown plain of the North Kala- 

 hari, or wandering amid the pleasant camel-thorn 

 groves of South Bechuanaland, is about as typical 



