THE TTANYANE. 227 



and about eight miles from the river, is the limit of the inundation 

 on the north ; there are large tracts of this sandy forest in that 

 direction, till you come to other districts of alluvial soil and fewer 

 trees. The latter soil is always found in the vicinity of rivers 

 which either now overflow their banks annually, or formerly did 

 so. The people enjoy rain in sufficient quantity to raise very 

 large supplies of grain and ground-nuts. 



This district contains great numbers of a small antelope named 

 Tianyane, unknown in the south. It stands about eighteen inches 

 high, is very graceful in its movements, and utters a cry of alarm 

 not unlike that of the domestic fowl; it is of a brownish-red color 

 on the sides and back, with the belly and lower part of the tail 

 white ; it is very timid, but the maternal affection that the little 

 thing bears to its young will often induce it to offer battle even to 

 a man approaching it. When the young one is too tender to run 

 about with the dam, she puts one foot on the prominence about 

 the seventh cervical vertebra, or withers ; the instinct of the young 

 enables it to understand that it is now required to kneel down, 

 and to remain quite still till it hears the bleating of its dam. If 

 you see an otherwise gregarious she-antelope separated from the 

 herd, and going alone any where, you may be sure she has laid her 

 little one to sleep in some cozy spot. The color of the hair in the 

 young is better adapted for assimilating it with the ground than 

 that of the older animals, which do not need to be screened from 

 the observation of birds of prey. I observed the Arabs at Aden, 

 when making their camels kneel down, press the thumb on the 

 withers in exactly the same way the antelopes do with their young; 

 probably they have been led to the custom by seeing this plan 

 adopted by the gazelle of the Desert. 



Great numbers of buffaloes, zebras, tsessebes, tahaetsi, and 

 eland, or pohu, grazed undisturbed on these plains, so that very 

 little exertion was required to secure a fair supply of meat for the 

 party during the necessary delay. Hunting on foot, as all those 

 who have engaged in it in this country will at once admit, is very 

 hard work indeed. The heat of the sun by day is so great, even 

 in winter, as it now was, that, had there been any one on whom I 

 could have thrown the task, he would have been most welcome to 

 all the sport the toil is supposed to impart. But the Makololo 



