8 TAKING ANTELOPE WITH CHEETA. 



spoiling the antelope shooting, as although a cheeta hunt is 

 most exciting to see for the first time, it becomes very 

 monotonous, the runs being so much alike that after a month 

 or two no one would care to see them ; but the brute had 

 to be sent out to get his food, and as he invariably killed 

 the finest buck in the herd, you may fancy how he spoilt 

 sport, besides making the antelopes so wild that it was 

 hardly possible to get near them. He was advertised for 

 sale for a long time, but as no one would purchase him he 

 was eventually given away, having killed on an average about 

 two antelopes a-week for nearly three years ! Hunting with 

 this animal has been so often described that I need not 

 say very much about it. The cheeta is taken out on a native 

 cart drawn by a pair of bullocks ; he has a coil of rope round 

 his loins, to which another with a slip noose is attached ; 

 this ties him to the cart when not in sight of game, but 

 when he is going to be slipped it is held by the keeper and 

 a leather hood which covers his eyes is slipped on to the back 

 of his neck ; by careful manoeuvring the cart is brought within 

 ninety or a hundred yards of the antelope ; the cheeta then 

 becomes very excited, and on the hood being pushed from 

 his eyes the keeper turns his head towards the herd. The 

 moment he sees them he quietly slips off on the opposite side 

 of the cart, and creeps rapidly along with his chest nearly 

 touching the ground ; he thus gains ten or twenty yards 

 before the antelope catch sight of him, when at once they 

 are off and away. In an instant he is up, and having fixed 

 on the finest buck in the herd, he rushes at him in a series 

 of the most astounding bounds, so swift that the antelope, 

 although one of the fastest of animals, appears to be waiting 

 for him ; in vain the poor frightened buck tries to keep with 



