The Eland 421 



The Eland [Taurotragus oryx and T. oryx livingstonei) 



In South and South Central Africa 



Eland of Cape Dutch ; Tganna of Hottentots ; Pofo of Bechuanas ; 

 Impofo of Amandebele, Zulus, and Kaffirs ; Mofo of Mashunas ; 

 Ee-pofo of Makalakas ; Insefo of Masubias and Batongas ; 

 Doo of Masarwa Bushmen. 



Eland is the Dutch equivalent for elk, and is the name which was given 

 by the first Dutch settlers in South Africa to the largest species of antelope 

 which they met with in that country, in compliment no doubt to its great 

 bulk, for there is no other point of resemblance between the two animals. 

 Probably none of the early Dutch settlers had had any personal experience 

 of the European elk or knew anything whatever about that animal, except 

 that it was of large size and heavy build, and so they foisted the very 

 inappropriate name of the largest deer of the Northern Hemisphere on 

 the largest antelope met with in their adopted country. The desire of the 

 early Dutch colonists of the Cape of Good Hope to discover resemblances 

 between the wild animals of Southern Africa and those they had previously 

 seen or heard or read of in Europe was doubtless a very natural one, but it 

 must have led to some confusion in the Dutch language, in which, not to 

 mention other cases, there is only one word — eland — to describe two such 

 different animals as Alces machlis of Europe and Taurotragus oryx of Africa ; 

 whilst the Alpine chamois and the South African oryx are both known 

 as the gemsbok. The name eland was adopted by the British colonists 

 in South Africa, and has become general in all European languages, as the 

 designation for the largest of African antelopes, the original derivation of 

 the word not being of course apparent to any one but a native of Holland. 



Time was when these magnificent animals roamed in herds over the 

 whole of South Africa from Cape Agulhas to the Zambesi. Of this there 



