chap. vi. LEOPARDS. 305 



when brought to bay, and anecdotes innumerable might 

 be related of instances when they have killed or seriously 

 injured both white and black hunters. The virus of their 

 bite is very great. I remember once seeing seven men 

 belonging to a Zulu village awfully torn and mangled by 

 a single animal, and the wounds remained open for a long 

 time, and ultimately left great scars. On the other hand, 

 I know of several who have died where the injuries 

 received were not such as to have been generally fatal, 

 though I am ignorant of the precise details in each par- 

 ticular case. It has been asserted by Mr. Layard, 1 on 

 the authority of Messrs. Chapman, Andersson, and Hold- 

 ing, all names of great weight, that leopards even attack 

 human beings without provocation ; this, however, is 

 so contrary to their general disposition and habits, for 

 they are the most retiring and secretive of carnivora, — 

 I should almost have said timid, were it not for their 

 extreme ferocity and pluck when wounded, — that no one 

 well acquainted with the African species would consent 

 to believe it without positive proof, and I incline to the 

 belief that the well-known travellers whose names have 

 been quoted must have been deceived, unintentionally, 

 no doubt, by their servants. 



Travellers passing rapidly through a country, more 

 particularly if they do not thoroughly understand the 

 language, are very much guided by what their native 

 attendants tell them, and this will be admitted by all who 

 have been much in Africa to be a very misleading method 

 of gaining information. In many cases the servants 

 belong to other tribes, and have heard reports which they 



1 Letter to the Fidd. 



U 



