THE KOMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



giving tongue around hiin, speaks of the weird 

 impression made on him by hearing a pack in full 

 cry at the dead of the night, and compares it to 

 the phantom hounds and huntsman of the Ger- 

 man legends.* 



What was this, however, to Gordon Cumming's 

 nocturnal adventure with the wilde honden in 

 Africa? He was watching for game in a hole 

 which he had dug by a pool in that romantic 

 fashion already alluded to, and, having shot a 

 gnu, had put down his rifle without reloading it, 

 and dropped asleep. 



He had not slept long before his slumbers were 

 disturbed by strange sounds. He dreamed that 

 lions were rushing about in quest of him, till, the 

 sounds increasing, he awoke with a sudden start, 

 uttering a loud shriek. He heard the rushing of 

 light feet on every side, accompanied by the most 

 unearthly noises, and, on raising his head, to his 

 utter horror, saw himself surrounded by troops of 

 what the colonists call wild dogs, a savage ani- 

 mal between a wolf and a hyena. To the right 

 and left, and within a few paces of the bold 

 hunter, stood two lines of these ferocious-looking 

 animals, cocking their ears and stretching their 

 necks to have a look at him; while two large 

 troops, containing forty at least, kept dashing 

 backwards and forwards across his wind, chatter- 

 ing and growling with the most extraordinary 

 volubility. Another troop of the wild dogs were 

 fighting over the gnu that had been shot ; and, on 

 beholding them, the expectation of being himself 

 presently torn in pieces made the blood curdle 

 over his cheeks, and the hair bristle on his head. 



In this dilemma the experienced hunter ba 

 thought himself of the power of the human voice 

 * Sullivan's " Rambles in America," p. 77. 

 226 



