A VISIT AT JUJA 



The wildebeeste is the Jekyll and Hyde of the ani- 

 mal kingdom. His usual and familiar habit is that 

 of a heavy, sluggish animal, like our vanished bison. 

 Pie stands solid and inert, his head down; he plods 

 slowly forward in single file, his horns swinging, 

 each foot planted deliberately. In short, he is the 

 personification of dignity, solid respectability, gravity 

 of demeanour. But then all of a sudden, at any 

 small interruption, he becomes the giddiest of 

 created beings. Up goes his head and tail, he buck 

 jumps, cavorts, gambols, kicks up his heels, bounds 

 stiff-legged, and generally performs like an irre- 

 sponsible infant. To see a whole herd at once of 

 these grave and reverend seigneurs suddenly blow 

 up into such light-headed capers goes far to destroy 

 one's faith in the stability of institutions. 



Also the wildebeeste is not misnamed. He is a 

 conserv^ative, and he sees no particular reason for 

 allowing his curiosity to interfere with his precon- 

 ceived beliefs. The latter are distrustful. There- 

 fore he and his females and his young — I should say 

 ^mall — depart when one is yet far away. I say 

 small, because I do not believe that any wildebeeste is 

 ever young. They do not resemble calves, but are ex- 

 act replicas of the big ones, just as Niobe's daughters 

 are in nothing childlike, but merely smaller wom.en. 



When we caught sight of this lone wildebe^?)^^ 



383 



