128 



CHAPTER XX. 



NOT UNATTRACTIVE HARMONY. 



It was dark when I reached the camp, and the night 

 threatened to be both stormy and wet. The 

 nocturnal prowlers were out in force — which they 

 always are when a change of weather is threatened — 

 for their voices constantly kept breaking the silence, 

 to be reverberated back from k/ooffs, copjes, and 

 rocks. There is a wonderful amount of mysterious- 

 ness about these sounds ; familiarity informs you 

 that animals produce them, but where the brutes 

 are, their numbers, and their intentions, you are 

 perfectly ignorant of. There is also a far from 

 unattractive harmony in the blending of their voices, 

 and a listener might almost suppose that this was 

 studied. 



For instance, the jackals will strike up their merry, 

 tittering alto bark, then the hyaenas join in as tenors, 

 while the basso profundo of the lion, in fitful gusts, 

 is added. The hyaena's notes at such times are not 

 disagreeable, being a protracted call, almost verging 

 on a deep whistle ; but when they are fighting or 

 wrangling over their prey they can make as dia- 

 bolical a row as it is possible to imagine. 



