There can be no denying that we were reaping a plentiful crop of
misfortunes, to which farmers in South Africa are especially exposed.
The cattle thieves had mysteriously come and swiftly gone, taking with
them a few head of stock into the dense cover of the Fish River Bush,
thence to slip them at favourable opportunities into Kaffraria. Then,
one morning the news was brought in that a pack of wild dogs, issuing
from the Kowie Bush on the west, had sallied out on a rush over the
intervening belt of well-stocked cattle country into the Fish River
Valley, and there were few farms on the route that had not suffered. At
one place a heifer had been pulled down and eaten; at another, a cow had
been attacked and so mauled that death from a rifle-ball was a happy
release; and on my place the pack had stampeded a mob of young cattle,
ran down and killed a steer, besides leaving their marks on many others.
In one night they had covered fifteen miles from one wooded fastness to
the other, killing as they went, and when in the morning the angry
farmers fingered their guns the brutes were resting secure in the
distant woods. The wild dogs hunt in packs when after game, and
according to a well arranged plan. Thus, one part of the pack will head
the quarry in a certain direction where other members are lying in wait,
but when on a wild rush across the veld they keep together, and on
coming across cattle or sheep they bite or kill out of sheer lust of
blood, seldom stopping to eat. Their jaws are enormously powerful, and
with a snap and a wrench they tear away mouthfuls of flesh--so that if a
pack gets among a flock of sheep they do a vast deal of mischief, and
though they cannot pull down an ox, they will cause the death of a cow
by tearing at her udder and belly. Fortunately their raids into the
comparatively open veld are not frequent, and they prefer to keep in the
shelter of wide stretches of bush until game becoming scarce they shift
quarters, when they may sometimes be caught in an isolated kloof and
shot or poisoned.
Uncle Abe had something to say when I met him next at the monthly
meeting of our Farmers' Association--an organisation of six paying
members and fifteen members who never had enough cash to pay, but who
regularly attended on the chance of getting a square meal from any one
of the five whose turn it was to give up his largest room to the
meeting. Uncle Abe did most of the orating, and it frequently happened
indeed that the formal business would be forgotten, while Abe from his
usual seat on the door-step held forth on the peculiar gifts of
"animiles." His idea was that all branches of animal life acted under a
stringent code of laws and regulations.
"Take these yer wild dogs," he said, pointing the stem of his
well-chewed pipe at the President, who sat at the end of the dining-room
table waiting patiently for a nervous young farmer to read his painfully
prepared paper on the vexed question of "Inoculation as a Cure for
Lung-sickness."
"Take these yer wild dogs. Haven't they got a leader? They have. Of
course they have, and wha' jer think they've got a leader for if it
isn't to follow him or her--for more often than not the leader's a she;
and wha' jer think they foller him or her if it ain't because they've
got rules and regulations which are be-known to that leader?"
"Don't they follow the leader because he happens to be the strongest in
the pack?" asked the nervous member anxiously, bent on shirking his
task.
"We ain't going to follow your lead this afternoon on that score," said
Abe caustically. "No sir, they follow the leader not because he is the
strongest, but for the reason that he knows the rules and regilations."
"Have you seen a printed copy, Abe?" asked one member shyly.
"No, sir. It's only human beings that ain't got sense enough to know
what they are setting out to do unless they put everything in print. A
human being wants to know everything, and he don't know nothing; but a
animile he calkalates to know what's necessary for him, and when he
learns his lesson he don't want any noospaper to tell him about it--you
jes' put that in your pipe. Now take your case--"
"Have some baccy, Uncle," said the interrupting member eagerly.
"Don't mind if I do. Lemme see. I were jes' going to tell ye a yarn
about some wild dogs, but I see the President's waiting for our young
friend to 'lighten us about 'noculation, which is good on his part,
considerin' there's some here as were curing lung-sick cattle before he
were born."
"My paper can wait," said the young farmer, hastily stuffing his notes
into his pocket. "Let us have your story."
"Drive ahead, ole man."
"Well, if it's the wish of the meeting, I'm at your service. If I
remember, 'twere away back in the sixties, when game were pretty thick
in these parts, and a pack took up lodgings in the big kloof over
yonder. I was mor'n ordinarily busy building my shed, and hadn't much
time to give any heed to them, though I yeard em often giving tongue as
they went after buck, and saw one of 'em sneaking along right up to the
old tree afore my door in the mealie garden. The brute were on the
spoor of a big black ram, which had taken that track from the big kloof
to a smaller shelter for a constitutional. I yapped at him, and after
looking at me with his big ears cocked and the round muzzle of his dirty
head held up, the yellow critter turned and went nosing back. Two days
after I seed three of 'em stealing up across the veld, and blow me if
they didn't come right up to the mealie patch. One of 'em lay down at
the bottom, the other come up to the top corner, and the third, a big
chap with a round belly, he stood back of the tree squinting round the
trunk. Thinks I, what's up? and lighting the pipe, I jes' plumped down
behind a bush, with the ole gun over my knee. The air was still, with
the drone of the sea, coming like the hum of a big bluebottle, and
bymby, through the stillness I yeard the sudden excited yapping of the
pack, followed after a spell by a loud bark, I looked at the three dogs,
and they was all looking across the veld with the water running from
their mouths. Casting my eye acrost the veld, there I seed a black spot
in the distance. It was the ram, sure enough, who had been put up in
the kloof and were now making for his second hiding-place. He were
taking it easy, though the wind was coming straight to him from the pack
behind. He came right on, with his head up, then he slowed down to a
walk, and looked back over his shoulder. Away back there were something
moving, a dark in-and-out patch, the pack on the spoor, and I seed the
ram shake his head and stamp with his hoof. Then he gave a short bark,
sort of defiant, and on he trotted again; but this time he turned away
to the left, as if he'd got a sudden fancy for the scattered bush clumps
about a mile over the ridge that way. Well, sir, he hadn't covered
more'n fifty yards when a yeller dog rose up and yapped at him. The
ram, he stood still, with his head up, looking at this oudacious
critter, when the pack behind gave tongue altogether, and the sound of
it made him skeered, for he wheeled round and came at a smart pace right
for the big tree and the mealie garden. I turned my head, biting
through my pipe, I was that excited, and I seed those two corner dogs
creeping nearer to the big one, who was standing back of the tree, with
his teeth showing and his tail twitching. Then I yeard the steps of the
ram, and there he were sailing along over the bushes, and the ant-hills,
his eyes full and bright with the light o' courage in 'em--for you know,
gentlemen, that the bush-buck carries a stout and gallant heart in his
great chest."
"Ay, ay, Uncle; so he does."
"There he came, his sharp hoofs pricking into the ground, his legs
slender and shapely, his great haunches gathering up as he cleared
everything in his way, and the points of his short, strong horns
catching the sparkle of the sun. Right for the tree he went, then on a
sudden he stopped and looked full ahead, his ears turned backward, but
his gaze fixed on a pair of gleaming eyes that glared at him. As he
stood there, as big as a year-old calf, with his side to me, I could ha'
driven a ball through his heart; but I didn't as much as go beyon'
closin' my grasp on the rifle. I wouldn't a shot him--no, not in them
cirkumstances. There were a duel of staring between those two for a
full half-minute, and in that time those other two yellow critturs were
slinking through the long grass bordering the mealies. Nex' thing
they'd a been on him from each side, with that other cur comin' up from
behind, not to speak of the pack hurrying up and of the big chap behind
the tree, when I gave a shout: `Look out!' say I, jes' as if he were a
human. `Look out!' says I, and the chap that was nearest me he rose up
outer the grass and jumped for the ram. You never seed sich a thing.
For all the ram had got his eyes on the big chap, he slewed his head
round quicker'n lightning, his horns went down, and the next thing that
yeller critter was lying on his back yelping, with a hole in his neck.
"The ram shook his head, and a tiny red mark went winding down the
furrows of his horn nearest me. Eh! you should a seen him and I jes'
held my breath, while my legs shook so I was obliged to stand up. Back
of him came the pack--silent now, and the speediest of 'em slipping
along like shadders, while two of the critters stood each side of the
ram watching him, and the big one standing clear of the tree, staring at
the great blazing eyes with his mean little yeller peepers. Suddenly
the big chap gave a few orders, sharp and snapping, and four leaders
from the pack shot out, two going one side and two the other. They were
surrounding the ram, and he knew it. He made a bound forward, and the
same minute the two dogs nearest him sprang open-mouthed, one of 'em
taking a clear mouthful outer the haunch. The ram swerved, and the big
chap waiting for him went for his belly, but the ram bounded into the
air, and when he came down he wheeled round with his back to the tree.
The dogs they jes' drew off and sat in a ring staring at him, one and
another opening his big jaws and bringing the white teeth together with
a snap, but the sight of that circle didn't shake the nerve of the buck,
for he shook his head at 'em and stamped his hoofs. One of the young
critters growing impatient ran in, but got a stroke from the pointed
hoof for his pains. Well, I were that 'xcited I moved towards the tree,
the pack jes' giving me one look, then closed in a step or two. Three
times the circle were drawn closer, and the sight of those staring eyes
from outer those ugly round heads fairly made me shudder. I up with the
gun and let 'em have a charge of slugs. In the confusion the ram went
off full slick this time, and the dogs, with a whimper, scattered after
him; but 'twas no use, he give 'em leg bail, and believe me them
critters come sneakin' back and s'rounded me. They did that."
"Did they think you were good to eat?"
"'Pears so, for they sat on their tails regarding me with loving looks.
I shoo'd to them, but they didn't shoo a inch. I went for 'em with the
gun clubbed, but while those in front give way, those ahind came
perilously near my legs. I heerd the snap of their steel jaws, but when
I turned there they were sitting down with their heads on one side.
Each time I tried that it were the same; and when I give up, there they
sat in a ring round me. Then I jes' swung up into the tree and snapped
my fingers at em.
"If I were to tell you what them ere wild dogs did, you 'ud up and say
the old man were a liar."
"You hurt our feelings, Uncle."
"Well, that big leader he up and made a speech--not a oration like our
gifted young friend here can make, but a few yaps and growls. After he
had finished they give him a cheer, and fell to scooping a big trench
round the tree. Then they gnawed the roots through. Then they boosted
the tree down. Yes, gentlemen, them wild dogs which you would call
unthinking critters, deliberately dug up that big tree with their teeth,
so's to get hold o' me."
"Hum! Did they eat you, Uncle?"
"They boosted the tree down; but while they stood away off, I lit on my
feet and were inside the house 'fore you could say Jack Robinson. Yes,
that's so."