CHAPTER XY. 
THE PALLAH, AND THE DUIKER. 
And now along the grassy meade 
Where the skipping Rooye-bok feeds 
Let me through the mazes rove 
Of the light acacia grove; 
« Now while yet the honey bee 
Hums around yon blossomed tree, 
And the pearled pintada calls 
With grating cry at intervale; 
And the Duiker at my tread 
Sudden lifts his startled heal, 
Then dives affrighted in the brake 
Like wild-duck in the reedy lake. © 
STANDING at the head of the true Antelopes, a model at once of elegance and vigour, the rare and graceful Pallah 
first gladdens the sight of the traveller in Southern Africa upon the elevated tracts to the northward of Litakoo. After plod- 
ding our most upinteresting way for several hundred miles through the barren wastes which lie beyond the Colonial boundary, 
and etnies at length this more cheerful region, we advance through the wooded slopes and valleys that environ the mountain 
ranges of Kurrichane and Cashan. There, and especially under the latter, the species is observed, amongst a thousand other 
novelties, in daily increasing abundance ; but still, amid the mimosa groves which trace the serpentine course of the principal 
rivers, or. th some sequestered and thinly wooded vale in their vicinity, only is it to be seen. Rarely do the families consist of 
more than a dozen or twenty individuals of both sexes, the number of bucks found among the largest groups being usually limited 
to three or four. Shy, capricious, and secluded in its habits, I can recal few objects more picturesque than the graceful figures 
of a wanton herd, dancing and bounding through the thousand stems of the airy acacia grove, in all the poetry of motion. Whilst 
the delicate finish of their limbs is absolutely unrivalled, their soft radiant eyes, fringed, like those of a Persian beauty, with 
long silken lashes, sparkle with animation. In the exercise of their acute faculties of hearing and smell, they will stop at every 
whisper, erect their slender necks—toss their light heads—and stamping their taper feet upon the ground, seem ready to catch . 
the faintest and most distant sound. Some are quietly ruminating or grazing in the shade—and the young fawns are tripping 
sportively at the tufted heels of their dams, Yonder buck with his amorously curled upper lip, and his long knotted horns reach- 
ing almost to his dun flanks, is darting like a meteor through the wood by a series of untiring circles, in an abortive attempt 
to overcome the coqnetry of a retreating doe; whilst that knot of active ladies, amusing themselves with the exercise of the 
skipping rope, are lifting all four feet from the ground at the same time, and occasionally, like the springbok rebounding play- 
fully over each other's backs. . 
Of the habits of this elegant and retired Antelope, few particulars have hitherto been obtained, and naturalists, I think, 
have most erroneously stated it to be an inhabitant of the open plain. Although in the course of our wanderings, we visited 
its head quarters, not one single specimen was observed throughout the champaign country, to which had it even occasionally 
resorted, it would surely not have escaped the notice of men, whose eyes, from morning until eve, were on the stretch for 
game. Along the sides of the Cashan mountains, and among the wooded valleys of the Limpopo, in all the favourite haunts 
of the stately Water-Buck, its red figure was the most frequently observed—several large herds being there resident, out of 
which no fewer than four bucks were more than once brought in during a single day. The flesh, like that of the tribe gene- 
rally to which it belongs, although dry, is tender and palateable, and being much patronized by our faithful Zoroastrian domestic, 
we never let slip the opportunity of realizing a leg for his private consumption. By the Bechuana nations, to whose country 
it would seem to be entirely restricted, the species is universally recognized under the title of paala; whilst the Griquas and 
Bastaards, who oceasionally pursue their hunting avocations to the northward of the Kamhanni mountains, have dubbed it rooye- 
bok (red buck), im allusion to its prevailing complexion. Professor Lichtenstein, who was the first to notice the animal, conferred 
the specific nomenclature of Melampus, from the singular tufted cushions of dark mealy hair with which the hinder fetlocks are 
decorated. These occvr in no other Antelope, and in the Pallah, remind the spectator of the heels of Mercury, a similitude 
which its nimble motions are well caleulated to sustain, In both sexes the succentorial hoofs are wanting —a brown dot sup- 
_ plying their usual place—and the horns oceur in the males only. Gnarled and eccentrically inflected, these are not less re- 
markable for their angular construction than in their dimensions, and although slender enough, can boast of at least double 
the length to which, from its delicate and feminine proportions, the wearer would appear to be entitled. The seut, which as a 
