Vlll 
FOREWORD 
fisherfolk; some are ape-like naked savages, who dwell in 
the woods and prey on creatures not much wilder or lower 
than themselves. 
The land teems with beasts of the chase, infinite in num¬ 
ber and incredible in variety. It holds the fiercest beasts 
of ravin, and the fleetest and most timid of those things that 
live in undying fear of talon and fang. It holds the largest 
and the smallest of hoofed animals. It holds the mightiest 
creatures that tread the earth or swim in its rivers; it also 
holds distant kinsfolk of these same creatures, no bigger 
than woodchucks, which dwell in crannies of the rocks, and 
in the treetops. There are antelope smaller than hares, 
and antelope larger than oxen. There are creatures which 
are the embodiments of grace; and others whose huge 
ungainliness is like that of a shape in a nightmare. The 
plains are alive with droves of strange and beautiful ani¬ 
mals whose like is not known elsewhere; and with others 
even stranger that show both in form and temper something 
of the fantastic and the grotesque. It is a never-ending 
pleasure to gaze at the great herds of buck as they move to 
and fro in their myriads; as they stand for their noontide 
rest in the quivering heat haze; as the long files come down 
to drink at the watering-places; as they feed and fight and 
rest and make love. 
The hunter who wanders through these lands sees sights 
which ever afterward remain fixed in his mind. He sees the 
monstrous river-horse snorting and plunging beside the 
boat; the giraffe looking over the treetops at the nearing 
horseman; the ostrich fleeing at a speed that none may 
rival; the snarling leopard and coiled python, with their 
lethal beauty; the zebras, barking in the moonlight, as the 
laden caravan passes on its night march through a thirsty 
