In Wildest Africa ^ 



the idea of flocks of wild creatures that have been 

 completely tamed ; and once this idea has suggested itself, 

 the impression is so strong that for many minutes one 

 can believe in it ! 



Amidst all this wealth of " wild " life, which here seems 

 hardly to deserve the name of "wild," it is much easier 

 to understand how primitive man in other continents 

 gradually secured domestic animals for his use, from the 

 vast range of choice thus presented to him. 



But a strange feeling comes over the observer when 

 he remembers that out of all this wealth of animal life 

 the African has never been able to link one single creature 

 permanently to himself He obtained his cattle and also 

 his goats and sheep from Asia. The camel may be left 

 out of account, for its connection with the human race is 

 lost in the mystery of primitive times. We may say that 

 the fauna of Africa has not given a single species to the 

 group of our domestic animals. It is sad and humiliating 

 to reflect that the men of to-day cannot accomplish what 

 was done in the dim past — granted that it took endless 

 ages in the doing. 



There were times, as I have said, when I could not 

 get rid of this impression of tame herds of animals. 

 And this was all in a land, and a district, that left one 

 nothing to desire in the way of primitive wildness. 

 What, then, must it have been in early days when man 

 was not yet waylaying the beasts of the wilderness, or at 

 least had not yet employed the poisoned dart and spear, 

 the pitfall and the snare ? It must have been a veritable 

 Garden of Eden. But here, far and wide, there is 



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