Up to this time the field-cornet had scarce deigned to notice the
quaggas. He knew what they were, and had often seen a drove of them--
perhaps the same one--approach the vley and drink. Neither he nor any
of his people had molested them, though they might have killed many.
They knew that the yellow oily flesh of these animals was not fit for
food, and is only eaten by the hungry natives--that their hides,
although sometimes used for grain-sacks and other common purposes, are
of very little value. For these reasons, they had suffered them to come
and go quietly. They did not wish to waste powder and lead upon them;
neither did they desire wantonly to destroy such harmless creatures.
Every evening, therefore, the quaggas had drunk at the vley and gone off
again, without exciting the slightest interest.
Not so upon this occasion. A grand design now occupied the mind of Von
Bloom. The troop of quaggas became suddenly invested with as much
interest as if it had been a herd of elephants; and the field-cornet had
started to his feet, and stood gazing upon them--his eyes sparkling with
pleasure and admiration.
He admired their prettily-striped heads, their plump well-turned bodies,
their light elegant limbs; in short, he admired everything about them,
size, colour, and proportions. Never before had quaggas appeared so
beautiful in the eyes of the vee-boor.
But why this new-born admiration for the despised quaggas?--for despised
they are by the Cape farmer, who shoots them only to feed his Hottentot
servants. Why had they so suddenly become such favourites with the
field-cornet? That you will understand by knowing the reflections that
were just then passing through his mind. They were as follows:--
Might not a number of these animals be caught and broken in?--Why not?
Might they not be trained to the saddle?--Why not? Might they not serve
him for hunting the elephant just as well as horses?--Why not?
Von Bloom asked these three questions of himself. Half a minute served
to answer them all in the affirmative. There was neither impossibility
nor improbability in any of the three propositions. It was clear that
the thing could be done, and without difficulty.
A new hope sprang up in the heart of the field-cornet. Once more his
countenance became radiant with joy.
He communicated his thoughts both to the Bushman and "Bush-boys"--all of
whom highly approved of the idea, and only wondered that none of them
had thought of it before.
And now the question arose, as to how the quaggas were to be captured.
This was the first point to be settled; and the four,--Von Bloom
himself, Hans, Hendrik, and Swartboy,--sat deliberately down to concoct
some plan of effecting this object.
Of course they could do nothing just then, and the drove that had come
to drink was allowed to depart peacefully. The hunters knew they would
return on the morrow about the same hour; and it was towards their
return that the thought of all were bent.
Hendrik advised "creasing," which means sending a bullet through the
upper part of the neck near the withers, and by this means a quagga can
be knocked over and captured. The shot, if properly directed, does not
kill the animal. It soon recovers, and may be easily "broken," though
its spirit is generally broken at the same time. It is never "itself
again." Hendrik understood the mode of "creasing." He had seen it
practised by the boor-hunters. He knew the spot where the bullet should
hit. He believed he could do it easily enough.
Hans considered the "creasing" too cruel a mode. They might kill many
quaggas before obtaining one that was hit in the proper place. Besides
there would be a waste of powder and bullets--a thing to be considered.
Why could they not snare the animals? He had heard of nooses being set
for animals as large as the Quaggas, and of many being caught in that
manner.
Hendrik did not think the idea of snaring a good one. They might get
one in that way--the foremost of the drove; but all the others, seeing
the leader caught, would gallop off and return no more to the vley; and
where would they set their snare for a second? It might be a long time
before they should find another watering-place of these animals; whereas
they might stalk and crease them upon the plains at any time.
Swartboy now put in his plan. It was the _pit-fall_. That was the way
by which Bushmen most generally caught large animals, and Swartboy
perfectly understood how to construct a pit for quaggas.
Hendrik saw objections to this, very similar to those he had urged
against the snare. The foremost of the quaggas might be caught, but the
others would not be fools enough to walk into the pit--after their
leader had fallen in and laid the trap open. They of course would
gallop off, and never come back that way again.
If it could be done at night, Hendrik admitted, the thing might be
different. In the darkness several might rush in before catching the
alarm. But no--the quaggas had always come to drink in day-time--one
only could be trapped, and then the others alarmed would keep away.
There would have been reason in what Hendrik said, but for a remarkable
fact which the field-cornet himself had observed when the quaggas came
to the lake to drink. It was, that the animals had invariably entered
the water at one point, and gone out at another. It was of course a
mere accident that they did so, and owing to the nature of the ground;
but such was the case, and Von Bloom had observed it on several
occasions. They were accustomed to enter by the gorge, already
described; and, after drinking, wade along the shallow edge for some
yards, and then pass out by another break in the bank.
The knowledge of this fact was of the utmost importance, and all saw
that at once. A pit-fall dug upon the path by which the animals entered
the lake, would no doubt operate as Hendrik said--one might be caught,
and all the rest frightened off. But a similar trap placed upon the
trail that led outward, would bring about a very different result. Once
the quaggas had finished drinking, and just at the moment they were
heading out of the water, the hunters could show themselves upon the
opposite side, set the troop in quick motion, and _gallop them into the
trap_. By this means not only one, but a whole pit-full might be
captured at once!
All this appeared so feasible that not another suggestion was offered--
the plan of the _pit-fall_ was at once, and unanimously adopted.
It remained only to dig the pit, cover it properly, and then wait the
result.
During all the time their capture was being planned, the herd of quaggas
had remained in sight, disporting themselves upon the open plain. It
was a tantalising sight to Hendrik, who would have liked much to have
shown his marksman skill by "creasing" one. But the young hunter saw
that it would be imprudent to fire at them there, as it would prevent
them from returning to the vley; so he restrained himself, and along
with the others remained watching the quaggas--all regarding them with a
degree of interest which they had never before felt in looking at a
drove of these animals.
The quaggas saw nothing of them, although quite near to the great
nwana-tree. They--the hunters--were up among the branches, where the
animals did not think of looking, and there was nothing around the
bottom of the tree to cause them alarm. The wagon-wheels had long ago
been disposed of in the bush, partly to shelter them from the sun, and
partly because game animals frequently came within shot of the tree, and
were thus obtained without any trouble. There were scarce any traces
upon the ground that would have betrayed the existence of a "camp" in
the tree; and a person might have passed very near without noticing the
odd aerial dwelling of the hunter family.
All this was design upon the part of the field-cornet. As yet he knew
little of the country around. He did not know but that it might contain
worse enemies than either hyenas or lions.
While they sat watching the manoeuvres of the quaggas, a movement was
made by one of these creatures more singular than any that had yet been
witnessed.
The animal in question was browsing quietly along, and at length
approached a small clump of bushes that stood out in the open ground.
When close to the copse it was observed to make a sudden spring forward;
and almost at the same instant, a shaggy creature leaped out of the
bushes, and ran off. This last was no other than the ugly "striped"
hyena. Instead of turning upon the quagga and showing fight, as one
might have supposed so strong and fierce a brute would have done, the
hyena uttered a howl of alarm, and ran off as fast as its legs would
carry it.
They did not carry it far. It was evidently making for a larger tract
of bush that grew near: but before it had got half-way across the open
ground, the quagga came up behind, and uttering his shrill "couaag,"
reared forward, and dropped with his fore-hoofs upon the hyena's back.
At the same instant the neck of the carnivorous animal was clutched by
the teeth of the ruminant and held as fast, as if grasped by a vice.
All looked to see the hyena free itself and run off again. They looked
in vain. It never ran another yard. It never came alive out of the
clutch of those terrible teeth.
The quagga still held his struggling victim with firm hold--trampling it
with his hoofs, and shaking it in his strong jaws, until in a few
minutes the screams of the hyena ceased, and his mangled carcass lay
motionless upon the plain!
One would think that this incident might have been enough to warn our
hunters to be cautious in their dealings with the quagga. Such a sharp
biter would be no pleasant horse to "bit and bridle."
But all knew the antipathy that exists between the wild horse and the
hyena; and that the quagga, though roused to fury at the sight of one of
these animals, is very different in its behaviour towards man. So
strong, in fact, is this antipathy, and so complete is the mastery of
the ruminant over the carnivorous animal, that the frontier farmers
often take advantage of these peculiar facts, and keep the hyenas from
their cattle by bringing up with the herd a number of quaggas, who act
as its guards and protectors.