-^ The Voices of the Wilderness 



waters of the inlet ; in the distance a changing answer 

 comes back in response to it. 



I did not then suspect that it would take me nearly 

 a year to be absolutely certain that this sound was 

 uttered by an extremely shy and restless kind of 

 cuckoo ! 



This sound of the African night always made the 

 strongest impression upon me, and remains indelibly in 

 my memory. All that one heard from near at hand, 

 or from the distance miles away, had its origin not in 

 man's voice or in human activity of any kind, but must 

 come from birds and beasts to a great extent unknown 

 to us. One had to interpret, to conjecture, to build 

 up theories. Often one struck upon the correct solution. 

 But often enough, too, the interpretation one accepted 

 proved to be false, and then one's anxiety to find out 

 the true solution, aroused anew, was doubly keen. The 

 first time I heard it, I had no difficulty in interpreting 

 for myself the cry of the monkeys harassed in the 

 night by leopards, a screaming of a kind one cannot 

 easily forget, plainly expressing the greatest terror. The 

 first time one heard the neighing of the herds of zebras 

 it was much more difficult to recognise the sound, and 

 the gobbling cry of the ostrich had at first a still 

 stranger effect. But as soon as I had heard the voice 

 of the zebras a few times, it was clear to me that the 

 extinct quagga of South Africa must have derived its 

 name from its cry. If one puts the accent on the 

 second syllable, and pronounces the g softly and deep 

 in the throat, one has, as one repeats it, a wonderful 



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