."

"Well, we know that; but if not with speech, they must have some means
of communication which answers as well."

"As far as their wants require it, no doubt," replied Swinton; "but to
what extent is hidden from us. Animals have instinct and reasoning
powers, but not reason."

"Where is the difference?"

"The reasoning powers are generally limited to their necessities; but
with animals who are the companions of man, they appear to be more
extended."

"We have a grand supper to-night," said Alexander; "what shall I help
you to--harte-beest, sassaby, or rhinoceros?"

"Thank you," replied the Major, laughing; "I'll trouble you for a small
portion of that rhinoceros-steak,--underdone if you please."

"How curious that would sound in Grosvenor Square."

"Not if you shot the animals in Richmond Park," said Swinton.

"Those rascally Hottentots will collect no fuel to-night, if we do not
make them do it now," said the Major. "If they once begin to stuff, it
will be all over with them."

"Very true; we had better set them about it before the feast begins.
Call Bremen, Omrah."

Having given their directions, our party finished their supper, and then
Alexander asked Swinton whether he had ever known any serious accidents
from the hunting of the rhinoceros.

"Yes," replied Swinton; "I once was witness to the death of a native
chief."

"Then pray tell us the story," said the Major. "By hearing how other
people have suffered, we learn how to take care of ourselves."

"Before I do so, I will mention what was told me by a Namaqua chief
about a lion; I am reminded of it by the Major's observations as to the
means animals have of communicating with each other. Once when I was
travelling in Namaqua-land, I observed a spot which was imprinted with
at least twenty spoors or marks of the lion's paw; and as I pointed them
out, a Namaqua chief told me that a lion had been practising his leap.
On demanding an explanation, he said, that if a lion sprang at an
animal, and missed it by leaping short, he would always go back to where
he sprang from, and practise the leap so as to be successful on another
occasion; and he then related to me the following anecdote, stating that
he was an eye-witness to the incident.

"`I was passing near the end of a craggy hill from which jutted out a
smooth rock, of from ten to twelve feet high, when I perceived a number
of zebras galloping round it, which they were obliged to do, as the r