IN AUSTRAL AFRICA. 315 



Shetland pony, in proof of which I have had 

 three young darkies on his back at the same time. 

 It is absurdly amusing to see with what complacency 

 he permits this liberty to be taken with him, not for 

 a moment exhibiting the slightest impatience till he 

 is induced to carry his load, when in detail he takes 

 each of these black mites of humanity by the leg, 

 and, as we would say in Scotland, "coups them 

 clean off." This performance is never done 

 hurriedly, but with a gravity thoroughly ludicrous 

 to behold ; taking down the great genus homo 

 a few pegs evidently tickles his fancy. The 

 history of this poor little beast is rather a sad one. 

 Cigar, my head huntsman, was out looking for 

 giraffes when he came across the spoor of a large and 

 small elephant. This he followed up for a few miles, 

 when he overtook the parent and child, the baby not 

 being able to travel fast and the mother refusing to 

 desert it. As is invariably the case under such 

 circumstances, the old cow was exceeedingly vicious 

 and chevied her pursuers in every direction, thus 

 making it totally impossible to capture the youngster. 

 Such devotion and resolution displayed in so good 

 a cause, one would have supposed to be reason 

 enough for giving up the intention of kidnapping her 

 precocious progeny. But Hottentots are not sensi- 

 tive or particularly thin-skinned in reference to per- 

 petrating deeds of barbarity, so they turned to, and 

 destroyed the life of the self-sacrificing parent. But 



