NATIVE INGENUITY. 249 



thought proper to seek repose. These large cats 

 are not dangerous to adult human beings unless 

 mobbed or wounded, when their extraordinary 

 activity and strength make them most formidable 

 antagonists. They are, nevertheless, a great pest 

 to a kraal in whose vicinity they take up their re- 

 sidence, for they are alike partial to children, young 

 cattle, and goats as articles of food, while their 

 stealthy habits render their depredations particularly 

 difficult to guard against. In hilly — especially 

 rocky — parts of the country they are always most 

 numerous, and are the last of the large game that 

 disappears before civilisation ; even at the present 

 time they are far from uncommon in the earliest 

 settled portions of the old colony of the Cape of 

 Good Hope. Where guns have not been introduced 

 they are generally killed by setting an arrow on a 

 bow in the path that the marauder usually travels ; a 

 line lets the missile loose, and seldom ineffectually. 

 In such arts the natives are wonderfully skilled. 



