Jock of the Bushveld Part 32

STEMBUCK (Cape Dutch, _stembok_ or _steinbok_, from the pure Dutch _steenbok_, the Alpine ibex), a small antelope (_Raphicerus campestais_). Height, 22 inches; weight, 25 pounds; horns, 5 inches.

STOEP (_p.r.o.nounced_ stoop) (d), a raised promenade or paved verandah in front or at sides of a house.

TAMBUKI GRa.s.s, also TAMBOOKIE, and sometimes TAMBUTI (n), a very rank gra.s.s; in places reaches 15 feet high and stem diameter half inch.

TICK, or RHINOCEROS, BIRD, the 'ox-p.e.c.k.e.r' (_Buphaga Africana_).

TIGER. In South Africa the leopard is generally called a tiger; first so described by the Dutch--_tijger_.

TOCK-TOCKIE, a slow-moving beetle, incapable of flight. Gets its name from its means of signalling by rapping the abdomen on the ground (_tenebrionid_ beetle of the genus _Psammodes_).

TREK (d) (_literally_ to pull), to move off or go on a journey; a journey, an expedition--_eg_, the Great Trek (or exodus of Boers from Cape Colony, 1836-48); also, and commonly, the time, distance, or journey from one outspan to another.

TREK GEAR, the traction gear, chain, yokes, etc, of a waggon. The Boer pioneers had no chains, and used reims plaited into a stout 'rope'; hence _trek-touw_, or pulling-rope.

TSESSEBE, an antelope, one of the hartebeeste family (_Damaliscus lunatus_; Dutch, b.a.s.t.a.r.d hartebeeste). Height, 48 inches; weight. 300 pounds; horns, 15 inches.

TSETSE FLY, a grey fly, little larger than the common house-fly, whose bite is fatal to domesticated animals.

TWIGGLE, little people's word for the excited movement of a small dog's tail, believed to be a combination of wriggle and twiddle.

UMFAAN (n), a boy.

UMGANAAM (n), my friend.

UMLUNGU (n), the native word to describe a white man.

VELD (_p.r.o.nounced_ felt) (d), the open or unoccupied country; uncultivated or grazing land.

VLEI (_p.r.o.nounced_ flay) (d), a small, shallow lake, a swamp, a depression intermittently damp, a water meadow.

VOORLOOPER (d) (_literally_ front walker), the leader, the boy who leads the front oxen; the _pat'-intambu_ (Zulu for 'take the reim').

VOORSLAG (_p.r.o.nounced_ foor-slaach) (d) (_literally_ front lash or skin), the strip of buck hide which forms the fine end of a whip-lash.

WATERBUCK (_Cobus ellipsiprymnus_; Dutch, _kring-gat_). Height, 48 inches; weight, 350 pounds; horns, males only, 36 inches.

WILDEBEESTE (_p.r.o.nounced_ vill-de-beast) (d) (_literally_ wild cattle), the brindled gnu, blue wildebeeste (_Connochaetes taurinus_). Height, 4 feet 6 inches; weight, 400 pounds; horns, 30 inches.

WILD DOG, the 'Cape hunting dog' (_Lycaon pictus_).

WOODEN ORANGE, fruit of the klapper (a species of _Strychnos_).

WOLF, the usual name for the hyena, derived from _tijger-wolf_, the pure Dutch name for the spotted hyena.

YOKESKEY, the wooden slat which, coupled by nekstrops, holds the yoke in place.