196 



A Breath from the Veldt 



about like so many donkeys, and becoming almost too friendly. They are not, 

 however, to be trusted implicitly, for though not nearly so savage as the 

 mountain zebra of Cape Colony, they can give a very nasty bite. 



As I strolled into camp I saw Piet Landsberg standing by the pool, not 

 twenty yards from my waggon, and beckoning to me with his finger, which he 

 presently pointed in the direction of the water below him. There lay in the 



Jff\.!L:s Mi ■ 



y«g/^^, 



FIRST ATTITUDE OF DEFENCE OF A WOUNDED SABLE BULL 



natural attitude of drinking — exactly in the position in which death had 

 overtaken him — a most beautiful old male leopard. Teenie had aimed at a 

 crow with his strychnine and killed a pigeon. The effect of the poison had 

 been so instantaneous that the leopard had not rolled over on its side, but had 

 just given up its life with the first few laps of water it had drunk ; and there 

 it lay with its nose in the water, and the morning sun playing on its beautifully- 

 spotted back — as fine a subject as any painter or photographer could wish for. 

 We intended hunting immediately after breakfast, as we were now in the 



