ers out and leave
the body!"

"Yes; I do not want it; but Bremen will take the skin, I dare say. It is
worth something at the Cape."

As soon as the Hottentots had secured the eggs, and Bremen had skinned
the ostrich, which did not occupy many minutes, they rode on, and
Swinton then said--

"The male ostrich generally associates with from three to seven females,
which all lay in the same nest. He sits as well as the females, and
generally at night, that he may defend the eggs from the attacks of the
hyenas and other animals."

"You do not mean to say that he can fight these animals!"

"And kill them also. The ostrich has two powerful weapons; its wing,
with which it has often been known to break a hunter's leg, the blow
from it is so violent; and what is more fatal, its foot, with the toe of
which it strikes and kills both animals and men. I once myself, in
Namaqua-land, saw a Bushman who had been struck on the chest by the foot
of the ostrich, and it had torn open his chest and stomach, so that his
entrails were lying on the ground. I hardly need say that the poor
wretch was dead."

"I could hardly have credited it," observed Alexander.

"The Bushmen skin the ostrich, and spread the skin upon a frame of
wicker-work; the head and neck are supported by a skin thrust through
them. The skin they fix on one of their sides, and carry the head and
neck in one of their hands, while the other holds the bow and arrows. In
this disguise--of course with the feathered side of him presented to the
bird or beast he would get near to--he walks along, pecking with the
head at the bushes, and imitating the motions of the ostrich. By this
stratagem he very often is enabled to get within shot of the other
ostriches, or the quaggas and gnoos which consort with these birds."

"I should like to see that very much," said the Major.

"You would be surprised at the close imitation, as I have been. I ought
to have said that the Bushman whitens his legs with clay. It is,
however, a service of danger, for I have, as I told you, known a man
killed by the male ostrich; and the natives say that it is by no means
uncommon for them to receive very serious injury."

"Hold hard," said the Major, "there is a lion; what a terrible black
mane he has got! What do you say, Swinton? He is by himself."

Swinton looked at the animal, which was crossing about three hundred
yards ahead of them; he was on a low hill, with his head close to the
ground.