224 THE OX. 



and pendent, and about a foot in length, and are frequently 

 found to be jagged and rent by the sharp spines of the dense 

 and tangled brushwood through which he forces a passage. 

 The Hottentots believe that the animals belong to demons, and 

 that the rents in the ears are the marks by which these super- 

 natural beings distinguish their own cattle. The hide is thick, 

 black, tough, and covered with wiry hairs. On the throat, 

 and along the dewlap, is a beard of stiff hairs, and on the 

 neck and spine a scanty mane : the tail is bare, with a tuft 

 at its extremity. 



These animals dwell in small herds in woods and thickets, 

 though sometimes they unite in larger bodies, as of 150 or 

 more together. They delight in moisture, passing hours in 

 pools of water, and rolling themselves in mud. They are 

 described by travellers as savage, treacherous, and vindic- 

 tive. The bull, it is said, will lurk behind the covert of 

 thickets, and rush on the unwary traveller, whose only hope 

 of safety is to reach a tree, should one happily be near. He 

 cannot save himself by flight, for the furious brute quickly 

 overtakes him, throws him to the earth, tramples upon him 

 with his feet, and crushes him to death with his knees. Nay, 

 it is said that, after having mangled his victim, the creature 

 retires to a distance, and then returns again and again with 

 increased ferocity, as if to gratify, by repetition, his thirst of 

 vengeance. The account of the animal's lurking behind 

 thickets is doubtless incorrect, for it is not the nature of her- 

 bivorous animals to prey on other creatures from a desire of 

 blood. And with respect to his treachery and cruelty, it is 

 to be asked which, in the eye of humanity and reason, is 

 the most treacherous and cruel, the traveller and stranger 

 who steals upon the lonely animal in his native haunt to shed 

 his blood, or the victim who uses the powers which Nature 

 has given him to protect himself from slaughter I 



Sparrman describes an encounter with several of these 

 animals on the Great Fish River. The party advanced within 

 twenty yards of one of them, when, actuated in some degree 



