CHAP. VI. LEOPARDS. 305 



len brouglit to bay, and anecdotes innumerable might 

 tli elated of instances when they have killed or seriously 

 i.he<red both white and black hunters. The virus of their 

 bite is very great. I remember once seeing seven men 

 belonging to a Zulu village awfully torn and mangled by 

 a single animal, and the wounds remained open for a long 

 time, and ultimately left great scars. On the other hand, 

 I know of several who have died where the injuries 

 received were not such as to have been generally fatal, 

 though I am ignorant of the precise details in each par- 

 ticular case. It has been asserted by Mr. Layard,^ on 

 the authority of Messrs. Chapman, Andersson, and Hold- 

 ing, all names of great weight, that leopards even attack 

 human beings without provocation ; this, however, is 

 so contrary to their general disposition and habits, for 

 they are the most retiring and secretive of carnivora, — 

 I should almost have said timid, were it not for their 

 extreme ferocity and pluck when wounded, — that no one 

 well acquainted with the African species would consent 

 to believe it without positive proof, and I incline to the 

 belief that the well-known travellers whose names have 

 been quoted must have been deceived, unintentionally, 

 no doubt, by their servants. 



Travellers passing rapidly through a country, more 

 particularly if they do not thoroughly understand the 

 language, are very much guided by what their native 

 attendants t. U them, and this will be admitted by all who 

 have been much in Africa to be a very misleading method 

 of gaining information. In many cases the servants 

 belong to other tribes, and have heard reports which they 



1 Letter to the Field. 

 U 



