CHAPTER V 



TIANG (DAMALISCUS TIANG) 

 ARABIC Tdtel 



ONCE the true big-game country is reached, the hunter 

 will hardly traverse many miles ere he finds himself 

 confronted by a troop of tiang. And a singular 

 silhouette they present as they stand on gaze, facing 

 full-front towards the intruder, rigid and erect, nothing 

 more than long black faces and thin necks showing 

 above the deep grass. Viewed thus, their horns strike 

 one as strangely short and stumpy, since the upright 

 carriage of the head conceals the long receding tips from 

 sight. Or, should the sun be already well up, the hunter's 

 first introduction may be to a listless group, all quiescent 

 and with drooping heads, half-asleep in the shade of some 

 far-away mimosa-grove (p. 83). The animals are deep 

 mahogany-red, with high withers and sloping quarters. 

 "Tetel," whispers your swarthy companion; but the 

 information is needless, since there is no mistaking a 

 hartebeest. That tribe is a thing apart among all 

 wild Nature's infinite designs. The almost exaggerated 

 length of the face, carried rigidly erect, and prolonged 

 by upright horns set in the same plane, together with 

 the formal sloping figure, form a combination like nothing 

 else on earth. 



The tiang, however, is not a true hartebeest 

 (Bubalis] but belongs to the allied genus Damaliscus, 

 distinguishable even in the field by the lesser development 



so 



