Judging from some ancient coats of arms, it would really seem that the gemsbok was known to Europeans even before the Portuguese discovered the passage round the Cape of Good Hope.[51] We are told that John of Lancaster, the great Duke of Bedford, bore his arms supported by this animal, which is still on the sinister side of the heraldic shield of the present ducal house of Bedford. Among various embellishments, which are painted in the Bruges style of the period, in a Prayer-book once the property of John of Lancaster, are found his armorial devices, with the antelope black, whose straight spiral horns, although placed almost at right angles with the head, are evidently intended for those of the oryx. The animal is adorned with gilded tusks, but in other respects is not ill drawn. It is conjectured that this book was illuminated on the marriage of the Duke of Bedford with Anne, Princess of Burgundy. Be this as it may, it can not well be later than the period of his death in the year 1435.
The gemsbok is a very remarkable animal, and, though possessed of many of those beautiful peculiarities which characterize antelopes, there is something anomalous about him. He has the mane and tail of the horse, the head and coloring of the ass, and the legs and feet of the antelope. The horns are about three feet in length, slightly curved backward, ringed at the base, and of a shining black color. Those of the female are somewhat longer than the male’s, but of more slender proportions. About one third of their entire length is hollow, resting on a bony protuberance. When both horns are perfect, and one has a side view of the animal, they appear as one and the same, from which circumstance many believe the gemsbok to be the unicorn[52] of Scripture.
The gemsbok is a truly noble beast. The adult male (about the size of an ass) not unfrequently attains nearly four feet in height at the shoulder, and about ten in extreme length. The general color of the coat is a “vinous buff.” The female is very similar in appearance, but slighter in form. The calves are of a reddish cream-color, which, as they grow up, becomes paler or whitish. They are easily tamed, but sometimes exhibit a vicious and treacherous disposition. Hans more than once domesticated them, and I myself have had the young alive.
The gemsbok may be said to be gregarious in its habits; for, though rarely seen together in any great number, it is not often met singly.
Of all the larger quadrupeds of South Africa with which I can claim acquaintance, the gemsbok is undoubtedly the swiftest. Its speed is nearly equal to that of the horse. Unless a man be a “light weight” and very well mounted, he has little chance of coming up with it.
The food of the gemsbok consists of grass, succulent plants (often of a very acrid taste), shrubs, &c.
As with several other animals indigenous to Southern Africa, water is not supposed to be essential to the existence of the gemsbok. Gordon Cumming, indeed, tells us “that it never by any chance tastes water.” But this, I apprehend, is a mistake; for I have not only seen it on several occasions while in the very act of drinking, but perfectly well authenticated instances have come to my knowledge where whole troops of these animals have been discovered either dead or in a dying state near pools purposely poisoned by the natives for the capture of wild animals. The gemsbok, it is true, is found in the most dreary and desolate districts far distant from water:
“A region of drought, where no river glides,
Nor rippling brook with osier’d sides—
With no reedy pool, nor mossy fountain,