I04 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



Tachard passes into the realm of startling fiction. 

 " As for the asses," he says " they are of all colours. 

 They have a long blue list that reaches from head 

 to tail ; the body being like that of the horse full of 

 broad streaks — blue, yellow, green, black and white, 

 all very lively." Lively indeed ! the word is all too 

 poor for such magnificent colouring ! Tachard calls 

 his picture the zembra or wild ass, zembra evidently 

 standing for zebra. The tail of the animal 

 thus depicted is asinine and fairly typical of 

 the true zebra. Ten Rhyne, who voyaged to 

 the Cape in 1673, is nearer the truth when he 

 speaks of this animal as being streaked with white 

 all over. 



Kolben speaks of the Cape wild ass as one of the 

 most beautiful, well shaped, and lively creatures he 

 had ever seen, and he tells us that it resembled the 

 ass in nothing but its ears (here the true zebra is 

 surely intended). "His legs are slender and well 

 proportioned, his hair soft and sleek. There runs 

 along the ridge of his back, from mane to tail, a 

 black list, from which on each side proceed streaks 

 of white, blue, and chestnut colour, meeting in 

 circles under his belly. His head and ears, mane 

 and tail, are also adorned with small streaks of the 

 same colours. He is so swift that no horse can keep 

 up with him, and as he is hard to be taken he bears 

 a very great price." Kolben, although he sojourned 

 at the Cape from 1703 to 1714, evidently knew the 

 zebra only by report, and like Tachard when he 

 condescends to particulars, flounders hopelessly out 

 of his depth, in his effort to impart local colouring. 

 His wood-cut gives the stripings all over the body, 

 but the portrait is evidently an imaginary one ; the 



