A Sandy Ridge Covered With Trees, Running Parallel To,
And About Eight Miles From The River, Is The Limit Of
The inundation
on the north; there are large tracts of this sandy forest in that direction,
till you come to
Other districts of alluvial soil and fewer trees.
The latter soil is always found in the vicinity of rivers
which either now overflow their banks annually, or formerly did so.
The people enjoy rain in sufficient quantity to raise very large supplies
of grain and ground-nuts.
This district contains great numbers of a small antelope named Tianyane,
unknown in the south. It stands about eighteen inches high,
is very graceful in its movements, and utters a cry of alarm
not unlike that of the domestic fowl; it is of a brownish-red color
on the sides and back, with the belly and lower part of the tail white;
it is very timid, but the maternal affection that the little thing
bears to its young will often induce it to offer battle
even to a man approaching it. When the young one is too tender
to run about with the dam, she puts one foot on the prominence
about the seventh cervical vertebra, or withers; the instinct of the young
enables it to understand that it is now required to kneel down,
and to remain quite still till it hears the bleating of its dam.
If you see an otherwise gregarious she-antelope separated from the herd,
and going alone any where, you may be sure she has laid her little one
to sleep in some cozy spot.
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