CHAPTER XII. 



KARROO BEASTS, BIRDS AND REPTILES. 



Leopard drowned in a well — Baboons — Egyptian sacred animals on Cape 

 farms — "Adonis" — A humiliating retreat — A baby baboon — 

 Clever tricks performed by baboons — ^Adonis as a Voorlooper—K 

 four-handed pointsman — Sarah — A baboon at the Diamond Fields 

 — Adonis's shower-bath — His love of stimulants — His revengeful 

 disposition — Pelops the dog-headed — Horus — Aasvogels — Goat- 

 sucker — The butcher-bird's larder — Nest of the golden oriole— 

 The kapok bird — Snakes in houses — A puff-adder under a pillow 

 — HufiF-adder most dangerous of Cape snakes — Cobras — Schaap- 

 sticker — Ugly house-lizards — Dassie-adder — The dassie the coney 

 of Scripture — Stung by a scorpion — Fight between tarantula and 

 centipede — Destructive ants — The Aardvaark, or ant-bear — Igno- 

 minious flight of it sentry — Ant-lion — Walking-leaves — The 

 Hottentot god — A mantis at a picnic. 



Although the elephant and lion are now no longer 

 found in the Karroo, there still remain a good number 

 of leopards, or, as the colonists, in calm defiance of 

 natural history, persist in calling them, " tigers." These 

 animals, by the way, seem fated at both ends of the 

 Dark Continent to be the victims of a misnomer, and 

 in Algeria rejoice in the name of panthere. Though 

 the South African leopards are now following the 

 example O- the larger and more formidable game, and 

 gradually retreating before the advance of man, it is nob 



