xviii HYRAXES, OR DASSIES 189 



Steepest part was an ancient wall, 4 feet high and 7 

 feet wide, built by the Salali Gallas to defend their 

 country against the inhabitants of Metta. It still marks 

 the boundary between the two provinces. At the top 

 of the cliff was a farmstead with a fine stretch of green 

 grass, watered by a little stream running through it. 

 It was very hot, the place tempting, and as I was told 

 that the next water was a long way off, I gave the word 

 to pitch camp. After tiffin a man came in to say he had 

 seen two klipspringers close to the top of the cliff, and I 

 seized a rifle and ran in the direction indicated. Just as 

 I reached the edge, and looked over on some broken 

 jungly ground, I saw two klipspringers dash up a little rise 

 and stand 40 yards off, but for a second only. A snap- 

 shot and they disappeared. Running after them, I heard 

 one call, and saw it standing almost hidden in long grass 

 below me ; I fired, and, as it fell to the shot, I saw a 

 leopard, which had evidently been hunting them, sneak 

 off through the underwood, but could not get a shot at 

 him. While I sat still, hoping he would show himself 

 again, first one and then another hyrax, or dassie, 

 as they are called in South Africa, came out from a 

 crack in a rock close to me, and, as I kept perfectly still, 

 gradually the whole family assembled and watched me 

 intently with their beady black eyes, till, getting tired, 

 I moved, when all vanished instantly. My men after- 

 wards found both the klipspringers. The first I fired 

 at had rolled into a bush, and the second lay where it 

 had fallen. It shows how much luck enters into sport, 

 that, during the whole of this trip, great part of which 

 was in leopard country, this was the only occasion on 



