278 NATIVE DOGS CRUEL TREATMENT. 



them, they greedily devour almost every thing they come 

 across. I have had my powder-flask, "veld" shoes, and 

 even rifle (the stock of which may have happened to be cov- 

 ered with hide, in order to keep it from cracking) abstracted 

 by them from my side during the night. A person's first 

 impulse on making the discovery is to vow vengeance on the 

 head of the thieves ; but, on seeing the emaciated state of the 

 poor creatures, in which every rib might be counted, anger 

 is turned into pity, and the uplifted arm, ready to strike the 

 blow, falls to its place. 



It has been said with much truth by a missionary that 

 " the Namaquas feed their dogs with stripes." From being 

 constantly kicked and knocked about in the most brutal 

 manner, they gradually become so accustomed to ill-treat- 

 ment that flogging produces little or no effect. When struck, 

 they merely shrug up their backs, open their jaws, grin in a 

 ghastly manner, and, if the chastisement be continued, howl 

 most piteously. This, and their skeleton appearance, are 

 enough to sicken a person. 



It would be somewhat difficult to determine to what spe- 

 cies of the canine race these dogs belong, or from what breed 

 they originally descended. They bear some slight resem- 

 blance to those I have seen at the homesteads of the Swedish 

 peasants.* 



Jonker had removed his werft to some little distance from 

 Eikhams. He invariably did this every year after the rains, 

 in order to save the pasturage for the dry season. I rode 

 over to the village, where I found nearly the whole tribe — 



* Mr. Lichtenstein, when speaking of the Bushmen dogs, -uhich 

 may he considered identical with those of the Hottentots, thus writes : 

 "These dogs, in their size and form, have a striking resemblance to 

 the black-backed fox of Southern Africa, the jackal, as he is falsely 

 called, canis viesomelas ; so that it seems very probable that the one is 

 really a descendant from the other, only that the properties of the an- 

 imal are, in the course of time, somewhat changed, from its having 

 been tamed and trained bv the hand of man." 



