56 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



mollified. When stroked or scratched, and made a 

 fuss with, Kitty would utter a curious low, throaty 

 cry, as indicative of pleasure, as is the purr of a cat. 

 She was desperately afraid of vultures and other 

 birds of prey. Sometimes the children, whom she 

 often followed out of doors, would imitate the cry 

 of an aas-vogel (vulture). Instantly Kitty would 

 run, in the greatest alarm, to the nearest person for 

 shelter from her aerial foe, which she evidently 

 imagined to be meditating a stoop at her. I believe 

 my friends at Riet Fontein were among the first to 

 tame and domesticate the meercat. Their example 

 has been followed by others, and this entertaining 

 little creature now bids fair to become a universal 

 pet among Cape colonists. 



With a few rough exceptions upon rocky undu- 

 lations in the plains, our journey progressed 

 smoothly enough until nightfall, when we reached 

 the hospitable shelter of a large Karroo farmstead, 

 owned by two brothers — Englishmen. Here we 

 first witnessed one of the most remarkable and 

 striking sights to be seen at the Cape — the return 

 to kraal in the evening of the vast flocks of sheep 

 and goats that are daily depastured upon these 

 mighty plains. Near the house lay a great dam, 

 and at the accessible end of this dam the flocks, to 

 the number of many thousands, in charge of the 

 Kaffir herd-boys who tend them during the hot 

 hours of daylight — moving as they move, and 

 keeping watch, just as David did, for wild animals 

 such as jackals and the like — come to quench their 

 thirst after their long and waterless hours of pasture. 

 It is a most singular and impressive sight to English 

 eyes : then the refreshed animals pour quietly into 



