In describing the condition of the plumes, this author writes: "Sometimes the white feathers would be dirty,—for there is nothing an ostrich likes better than sitting down to cool himself in the muddiest dam he can find; then it was necessary to wash them, dip them into strong raw starch, and shake them in the hot sun, beating two bundles of them together till quite dry. The starch makes them look very pretty and fluffy. Ostrich feathers are quite tabooed by ladies in South Africa; they are too common, every Kaffir or Hottentot wearing one in his dirty, tattered hat.
"If an ostrich feather is held upright, its beautiful form, graceful as the frondlike branch of the cocoanut palm, which it somewhat resembles, is at once seen to be perfectly even and equal on both sides, its stem dividing it exactly in the center, whereas the stems of other feathers are all more or less on one side."
Ostriches begin to make their nests soon after a good rain. The father bird becomes very savage, as if to warn all intruders away from the vicinity of the nest. His note of defiant warning can be heard then in every direction. He inflates his neck in a cobralike fashion, and gives utterance to three deep roars; the first two short, the third very prolonged. Lion hunters all agree in asserting that the roar of the king of beasts and that of the most foolish of birds are identical in sound; with this difference only, that the latter, when near, resembles the former when far away.
"When an ostrich challenges, he sits down; and, flapping each broad wing alternately, inflates his neck, and throws his head back, rolling it from side to side, and with each roll striking the back of his head against his bony body with so sharp and resounding a blow that a severe headache seems likely to be the result."
When the birds become aggressive, one dares not walk about the camp unless armed with a weapon called a "tackey." This is merely a long, stout branch of the mimosa tree, from which all the thorns, except upon one end, have been stripped. It does not seem to be much of a protection against so ferocious and formidable a foe, one stroke of whose powerful leg can easily kill a man, and whose kick, as violent as that of a horse, is much more dangerous, owing to the terrible claw with which nature has armed the foot.
Those versed in the use of the tackey allow the enraged assailant to approach almost unpleasantly near, and then thrust the weapon of defense boldly in his face just as he is about to strike. The thorns are so annoying that he is obliged to close his eyes, and can merely run forward in a blind, helpless fashion. This gives the person bearing the tackey a chance to spring to one side and to proceed upon his way for some little distance, before the bewildered bird is ready for another attack, when he is again met by the same simple but effective instrument.
Some ludicrous stories are related of the encounters newcomers at the Cape have had with ostriches. A sturdy newcomer, six feet in height, on starting for an early morning walk, was cautioned against going into a certain camp where the ostriches were dangerous. He laughed at his friends' advice, told them he was not afraid of a dicky-bird, and disdaining the proffered tackey started off straightway in the forbidden direction. He did not return to dinner; a search was made for him, and eventually he was found perched up on a high ironstone boulder, just out of reach of a large ostrich, which was doing sentry, walking up and down, and keeping a vicious eye on him.
He had sat there for hours, nearly roasted alive, and there he would have had to sit till sundown, but for the timely appearance of his friends.
Another story is related of a gentleman whose theory was that any creature, however savage, could be quelled by the human eye. One day he tried to quell one of his own ostriches, with the result that he was presently found in a very pitiable predicament, lying flat on the ground, the subject of his experiment jumping up and down on him, and occasionally varying the treatment by sitting on him.