ver he may go, and
by their barking bring him to a stand.

Another valuable service which the dogs perform, is in drawing the
attention of the elephant away from the hunters. The huge quadruped
when enraged is, as we have already seen, exceedingly dangerous. On
such occasions he will charge upon the noisy dogs, mistaking them for
his real assailants. This, of course, gives the hunter a good
opportunity of delivering his fire, and avoiding the deadly encounter of
the elephant.

Now in several elephant-hunts which they had lately made, our hunters
had run some very narrow risks. Their quaggas were neither so
manageable nor so quick in their movements as horses would have been,
and this rendered the hazard still greater. Some of them might one day
fall a victim. So feared Von Bloom; and he would gladly have given for
a number of dogs an elephant's tusk a-piece--even though they were the
most worthless of curs. Indeed, their quality is but of slight
importance. Any dogs that can trace the elephant and pester him with
their barring would do.

Von Bloom even thought of taming some hyenas, and training _them_ to the
hunt. This idea was by no means quixotic. The hyena is often used for
such a purpose, and performs even better than many kinds of dogs.

One day Von Bloom was pondering over this subject. He was seated on a
little platform that had been constructed very high up--near the top of
the nwana-tree--from which a view could be had of the whole country
around. It was a favourite resort of the field-cornet--his
smoking-room, in fact--where he went every evening to enjoy a quiet pull
out of his great meerschaum. His face was turned upon the plain that
stretched from the border of the _bosch_ as far as the eye could reach.

While quietly puffing away, his attention was attracted by some animals
standing at a distance off upon the plain. The brilliant colour of
their bodies had caught his eye.

They were of a lively sienna colour over the back and sides, and white
underneath, with a list of black upon the outside of the legs, and some
black stripes upon the face, as regularly defined as if laid on by the
brush of a painter. They had horns of very irregular shape, roughly
knotted--each curved into something of the shape of a reaping-hook, and
rising directly from the top of one of the straightest and longest heads
ever carried by an animal. These animals were far from being gracefully
formed. They had dr