WITH FLASH-LIGHT AND RIFLE 



kulia trees, until the cloot, doot, doot — doo, doo, doo; 

 doot, doot — doo, doo, of the " tippii-tippii " {Centrophus 

 siiperciliospz) announces the break of day. One sees 

 the tree-dassies often also in the daytime. 



The solemn virgin forests, through the thick foliage 

 of which the sunlight barely penetrates, is not devoid 

 of animal life. In the twilight of the woods we see 

 suddenly rise before us the beautiful Francolinus bird. 

 Warned by its cry, the rabbit-like animals run up the 

 trunks of the primeval Jnniperus procera and other 

 gigantic trees to disappear in the holes and cracks of 

 the big branches. They are tree-dassies, the "pelele" 

 of the natives, who hunt these animals to gain their 

 soft fur which they work into cloaks, or sell to the 

 European traders in order to be able to pay the hut- 

 taxes levied by the colonial government. In order to 

 pay the taxes the natives are often forced to kill game 

 far beyond their personal need. They also hunt the 

 animals of the wilderness in the employ of European 

 merchants, who carry on a profitable trade in furs and 

 skins. 



To what extent skins are made an article of trade, I 

 had occasion to observe in the great emporiums of Aden 

 and Marseilles, where I saw thousands of bales consist- 

 ing of antelope-skins forming part of the cargo of the 

 big steamers. The English government has somewhat 

 restricted the trade in antelope-horns, by putting a heavy 

 export tax on them, but hundreds of thousands of ante- 



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