THE ZEBRA IN CAPE COLONY. 103 



of Imperial Rome. Further, it would seem that the 

 zebra was unknown upon Egyptian monuments 

 before Caracalla's time. Considering that the true 

 zebra occurs in the mountains of Abyssinia, this fact 

 is curious, to say the least of it, and goes to prove 

 that Equus montanus has ever been a shy and 

 difficult animal to obtain. The name zebra would 

 seem to be of negro or Abyssinian origin, and is 

 variously derived from Zeuru, Zeora, or Zecora — 

 Abyssinian and Galla names. 



Passing to more modern times, I find the first 

 mention of the zebra made by Tachard, a Jesuit 

 Priest, who touched at the Cape on his voyage to 

 Siam soon after the middle of the seventeenth 

 century. The early Dutch settlers called the zebra 

 indifferently wilde paard or wilde esel (wild horse 

 or wild ass) , and the old world travellers fell into 

 some absurd mistakes in consequence. Tachard 

 gives a ludicrous wood-cut of these so-called wild 

 asses, which from the full stripings are evidently 

 intended for the true zebra. The stripings appear 

 all over the body, but the ears are hideously 

 misshapen, and more resemble cabbages or cauli- 

 flowers than anything else. Tachard may have 

 seen a skin of the zebra, but his descriptions of 

 these wild horses and asses are best represented 

 in his own words. "There are both horses and 

 asses here of extraordinary beauty. The first 

 have a very little head and pretty long ears ; 

 they are all covered over with black and 

 white streaks (here the true zebra is evidently 

 intended) that reach from their back to their 

 belly, about four or five fingers broad." From 

 this fairly true sketch, probably taken from a skin. 



