viii FOREWORD 



The dark-skinned races that live in the land vary widely. 

 Some are warlike, cattle-owning nomads; some till the soil 

 and live in thatched huts shaped like beehives; some are 

 fisherfolk; some are ape-like naked savages, who dwell in 

 the woods and prey on creatures not much wilder or lower 

 than themselves. 



The land teems with beasts of the chase, infinite in num- 

 ber and incredible in variety. It holds the fiercest beasts 

 of ravin, and the fleetest and most timid of those beings that 

 live in undying fear of talon and fang. It holds the largest 

 and the smallest of hoofed animals. It holds the mightiest 

 creatures that tread the earth or swim in its rivers; it also 

 holds distant kinsfolk of these same creatures, no bigger 

 than woodchucks, which dwell in crannies of the rocks, and 

 in the tree tops. There are antelope smaller than hares, 

 and antelope larger than oxen. There are creatures which 

 are the embodiments of grace; and others whose huge 

 ungainliness is like that of a shape in a nightmare. The 

 plains are alive with droves of strange and beautiful ani- 

 mals whose like is not known elsewhere; and with others 

 even stranger that show both in form and temper something 

 of the fantastic and the grotesque. It is a never-ending 

 pleasure to gaze at the great herds of buck as they move to 

 and fro in their myriads; as they stand for their noontide 

 rest in the quivering heat haze; as the long files come down 

 to drink at the watering-places; as they feed and fight and 

 rest and make love. 



The hunter who wanders through these lands sees sights 

 which ever afterward remain fixed in his mind. He sees the 

 monstrous river-horse snorting and plunging beside the 

 boat; the giraffe looking over the tree tops at the nearing 



