398 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



of quaggas in his phaeton about London, and that 

 he himself had been drawn by one in a gig, " the 

 animal showing as much temper and delicacy of 

 mouth as any domestic horse." 



Barrow, in his excellent " Travels into the 

 Interior of Southern Africa " (1797-8), writes of 

 the quagga as " well-shaped, strong-limbed, not 

 in the least vicious ; but, on the contrary, soon 

 rendered by domestication mild and tractable ; 

 yet, abundant as they are in the country, few have 

 given themselves the trouble of turning them to 

 .any kind of use. They are infinitely more beautiful 

 than, and fully as strong as, the mule, as easily 

 .supported on almost any kind of food, and are 

 never out of flesh." 



On the other hand, although undoubtedly, if 

 taken young, more easily tamed than the fierce true 

 zebra, in its wild state the quagga must have been 

 .an extremely awkward customer when wounded. I 

 have heard numerous anecdotes from old colonists 

 of the ferocity of this animal and the zebra in the 

 wild state. Cornwallis Harris instances the death 

 of a native servant, whose skull was completely 

 .smashed by the kick of a quagga, and mentions a 

 narrow escape of his own ; and he further speaks 

 -of his having seen " a wretched savage, every 

 finger of whose dexter hand had been stripped off 

 by the long yellow teeth of a wounded male." 



The courage of the quagga, reputed by Jardine 

 41 to be the boldest of all equine animals, attacking 

 hyaena and wild dog without hesitation," was, in the 

 old days, to some extent taken advantage of by the 

 Dutch colonists, who are reported to have used them 

 in a domesticated state " for the purpose of protecting 



