148 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



that of colour, different from the Indians. 

 Most of them are negroes. Their knowledge 

 of natural history amounts to very little. A 

 few make brave and skilful trackers of elephant 

 or lion, but of the habits of wild animals the 

 vast majority know little and care less. They 

 would rather have them dead than living, for 

 they eat every bird, beast, and reptile in the 

 land, and the traps in which they capture them, 

 from the great hippopotamus down to the 

 smallest gazelle, are primitive and cruel. Of 

 the arts of taming wild creatures and making 

 them perform useful work they have no notion. 

 Cattle, sheep, and goats they keep, of course, 

 and occasionally one hears of a wild dog being 

 trained for the chase ; but as for training an 

 elephant to haul timber, or a cormorant to 

 catch fish, they would scoff at the idea. 

 Elephant and cormorant alike go into the pot. 



Different as are the wild animals of the two 

 regions, they have also some features in 

 common. Each has its lion, leopard, rhino- 

 ceros, buffalo, wild boar, and monkeys. On the 

 other hand, India has no giraffe, and Africa no 

 deer. India has no zebra, and Africa no bear. 

 India is poor in antelopes, but rich in wild 

 sheep. Africa has but one wild sheep (of no 

 great account), but a grander assemblage of ante- 

 lopes than all the other continents put together. 



But that this book aims at giving most of its 



