586 Great and Small Game of Africa 



caracal is wonderfully thick, close, and soft, and the pelt has the reputation 

 all over South Africa — I believe well deserved — of being an excellent 

 preventive against rheumatism ; many Boers and colonists sleep on a 

 kaross of these skins. A cloak of caracal skins is worth at any time, even 

 up country, as much as £5 : 5s. I have at the present time in my posses- 

 sion one of these karosses, for which I paid that sum to one of Khama's 

 tribesmen in Bamangwato. Although consisting of sixteen skins, beauti- 

 fully sewn together with fine sinew, taken from the backs of small 

 antelopes, this kaross is wonderfully light. It is at the same time a most 

 warm covering, and after seven or eight years' service is as good now as 

 when I bought it. While collecting and matching these skins, the 

 Bechuanas have a great objection to selling a single pelt. I have tempted 

 a native, who had just snared a fine caracal and was carrying it to his kraal, 

 with a good price in cash, but was unable to induce him to part with his 

 capture. No doubt that particular rooi-kat matched the skins of others he 

 had on hand, and was destined for a special place in some cloak or kaross. 



The rooi-kat stands about 16 or 17 inches at the shoulder. Its coat 

 varies in colour from bright rufous to a darker reddish-brown. The throat 

 and under parts are paler, the belly being lightly marked with pale rufous 

 spots. The ears are long, tapering, lynx-like, and tipped or tufted with 

 black hair. The body is longish, lithe, yet strongly knit, and the animal 

 is powerful, very active, and can use teeth and claws to great purpose at 

 need. When wounded, it ought to be approached with care. It is a 

 savage, untamable beast, and even the quite young animals are hopelessly 

 intractable. It has great pace, and I have seen one of these beasts, surprised 

 in daylight, show a clean pair of heels to a couple of men on ponies, and, 

 after a short scurry, make good its escape in some bush or covert. The 

 caracal prefers, apparently, a dry desert habitat and is common in Bechuana- 

 land and along the edge of the Kalahari desert. Formerly it was abundant 

 in Cape Colony, but has there been much reduced in numbers by the 



