NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



blood and strewn with their dead and dying 

 victims. 



So bold were they in the past that the presence 

 of a shepherd was often ignored. Watching their 

 opportunity, a dash would be made from out of some 

 adjacent cover, or from over a hillock, and within 

 five minutes a score of sheep would be slain and 

 partly devoured before the cries of the shepherd 

 and the firing of his gun frightened them off. So 

 closely does the colour of their fur blend with the 

 karoo veld that, when lying flattened out on the 

 ground, they are invisible at a comparatively short 

 distance. Lying thus they watched for an oppor- 

 tunity to make a dash. At other times, lying just 

 over the crest of a low hill, or concealed amongst 

 the loose stones on a hillside, they lay for hours 

 watching the flocks and herds out upon the veld 

 below. Many a chance presented itself of snap- 

 ping up cattle, sheep and goats which had strayed 

 a short distance away from the others, for the 

 shepherds were invariably careless and irrespon- 

 sible Hottentots. 



So bold were they that they have been known to 

 make a dash at a herd of cattle quietly feeding 

 within a hundred yards of the homestead, and 

 singling out a beast drive it off into the bush or over 

 some rising ground and devour every mouthful of 

 its flesh before a horse could be saddled to follow 

 them up. 



A Dutch friend in Natal told me that in the 

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