NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 
blood and strewn with their dead and dying 
victims. 
So bold were they in the past that the presence 
of a shepherd was often ignored. Watching their 
opportunity, a dash would be made from outof some 
adjacent cover, or from over a hillock, and within 
five minutes a score of sheep would be slain and 
partly devoured before the cries of the shepherd 
and the firing of his gun frightened them off. So 
closely does the colour of their fur blend with the 
karoo veld that, when lying flattened out on the 
ground, they are invisible at a comparatively short 
distance. Lying thus they watched for an oppor- 
tunity to make a dash. At other times, lying just 
over the crest of a low hill, or concealed amongst 
the loose stones on a hillside, they lay for hours 
watching the flocks and herds out upon the veld 
below. Many a chance presented itself of snap- 
ping up cattle, sheep and goats which had strayed 
a short distance away from the others, for the 
shepherds were invariably careless and irrespon- 
sible Hottentots. 
So bold were they that they have been known to 
make a dash at a herd of cattle quietly feeding 
within a hundred yards of the homestead, and 
singling out a beast drive it off into the bush or over 
some rising ground and devour every mouthful of 
its flesh before a horse could be saddled to follow 
them up. 
A Dutch friend in Natal told me that in the 
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