A DANGEROUS ANIMAL. 221 



room antimacassars I ever saw ; in fact, they pro- 

 voked such universal admiration, that I should advise 

 any young brother sportsman, who possesses an 

 ardent attachment for a lady fair, in whose super- 

 lative graces he wishes to bask and breathe out 

 existence, not to forget to provide himself with an 

 abundant supply of these lovely skins as gifts for 

 his innamorata, for failure after such a donation must 

 be his fault, and his only. 



With the natives, the skin of the leopard makes 

 their most aristocratic kaross ; thus we see the un- 

 civilised and uneducated Bechuanas and Matabeles 

 adopting the favourite mantle of Greece in the 

 olden times ; for Homer, in his " Iliad," speaking of 

 Menelaus, says : 



" With a pard's spotted hide his shoulders broad 

 He mantled o'er ' : 



The general mode of attack made by this animal 

 upon such of its prey as are formidable from size, 

 is to dislocate the victim's neck by means of its 

 powerful teeth and claws simultaneously used. This 

 is done by a sudden wrench, made with such force as 

 to at once break the vertebra of even an ox or horse. 



