178 A Breath from the Veldt 



was at considerable trouble to present the situation exactly as described by- 

 Van Staden, who had been a close observer of this stirring incident. 



Ques. " What is this ? " 



One of Van Staden's sons, immediately volunteering imformation — 



Ans. " That ? That is some Boer dogs hauling a cow to be inspanned." 



" Yes, oh yes." 



The natives, however, are far more intelligent than this. A Shangan 

 hunter, Clas, whom I afterwards had with me for a month, on my showing 

 him this same sketch one day, was delighted with it. He grunted and 

 ho-hoed considerably, grasping the situation at once, and naming the animals 

 and trees correctly. In fact, he never gave a wrong name to anything I 

 showed him. "Gentleman," the Shangan boy, was very quiet, and hardly 

 ever laughed or talked like the other boy, " Office," but towards the end of 

 our trip he blossomed out considerably, and above all things seemed to take 

 an interest in my drawings. I used to sit and sketch up on the kartel of the 

 waggon, where the breeze was nice and cool. If Gentleman was about, few 

 minutes would elapse before his black poll would appear about the horizon of 

 the" karosses, and standing on the steel brake at the back of the waggon, he 

 would watch me as long as I cared to let him. When taken no notice of, he 

 would begin to talk good-naturedly in a mixture of half Zulu and half Dutch, 

 and always gave the right names of things as they grew on the paper beneath 

 my hand. Sometimes, out of fun, he would give wrong names to see if I 

 would notice it and understand. If I observed the mistake and understood the 

 wrong word he had made use of, it tickled him immensely, and he would 

 chuckle with delight. And here let me say that though the painting of wild 

 animals at large in their own haunts is one of the most interesting pursuits, it 

 is at the same time one of the most difficult tasks to which an artist can set 

 himself, if he would do justice to his subject as well as his craft. I do not 

 say this because I have entered this field myself, but because of the ridiculous 

 criticism one too often hears, or reads in the papers, on illustrations of birds and 

 animals. An artist may be a first-class performer as a draughtsman, composer, 

 and master of light and shade, and yet draw down upon himself the laughter 

 of the experienced sportsman and naturalist when he attempts to show what 

 birds and beasts are like in their wild state. And the reason is plain enough : 

 he is neither a sportsman nor a naturalist — very few artists are — and has 

 therefore to rely entirely on his skill in making a nice picture at the expense 

 of truth. Seldom, indeed, has an artist working for his living either means 



