CTTAP. xrv. DWARF LIONS. 203 



Not far from Cape Town, over which Table Mountain 

 keeps stern guard, there is a stretch of low-lying country, 

 called the Cape Flats, which separates the Cape Peninsula 

 from the main mass of the African continent. This shall 

 be our hunting-ground. As we tramp across the sandy 

 plain, turning aside now and then to pluck a heath or an 

 orchid, or to turn over one of the great rounded ant-balls 

 as large as a giant's head, or to lift the leaves of the 

 prickly bear's-foot beneath which lurk beautifully marked 

 beetles of the weevil tribe, we may perhaps see a large 

 secretary bird stalking along with his pen behind his ear, 

 ready to record the number of snakes he has scotched. 

 But it is not for flowers or beetles, for snakes or for birds, 

 that we are in search. Nothing less than a lion, if it be 

 only a little ground-lion, will satisfy us. Ah ! I thought 

 this was a likely spot ! See, there he is ! 



Where ? Cannot you see him lurking in that bush, the 

 colour of which his own so closely resembles ? Look ! he 

 moves his swivel eye, slowly unclasps his gloved hand, and 

 very softly moves forward his thin fore-limb ; he uncoils 

 his slender tail, and there I have him ! Does not he 

 twist backwards and forwards ? Does not he hiss, and wrap 

 his tail round my finger ? See, he is already changing 

 colour. What ? Only a chameleon, do you say ? Well ! 

 turn to your Greek Lexicon, or your Etymological Dic- 

 tionary, and see whether chameleon does not mean " lion 

 of the ground," with " dwarf" as a secondary meaning of 

 the first part of the word, when used in composition. Am 

 I not right therefore in calling him a little ground-lion ? 

 We will not quarrel about a name, however, but having 

 caught one or two more chameleons (if you will have it so), 

 let us take them home and keep them for a while as 

 pets. 



As we near Sunnysidc, my little one-storied cottage (and 



