OCR Rendition - approximate

3o   THE GHOU DA111UP.   f cttAP. it.

down the rock, looking very frequently over my shoulder; but it wag not till I came to where the men stood that I could see the round head and pricked ears of my enemy peering over the ledge under which I had been at work. Stewartson made a very good shot at him, but too low, splintering the stones under his chin. It was far too dark for a good aim. It then appeared that the creatures we had thought were deer were really the lions. It was now useless to lie out where we had intended, as the lions knew all about us, and proved to be far better rock-climbers than ourselves ; and, as we could not get up the tree, we returned thoroughly out-generalled.

In the evening a waggon came down. It was en route from the Missionary station of Mr. Hahn to the Bay. The waggon driver had a small flock of slaughter sheep for his own consumption by the way ; he kindly sold us two of them, which was all he could spare.

In the morning, with a heavy heart and diminished cavalcade, we proceeded onwards ; sometimes Andersson and sometimes I rode-but I had much the most riding of the two. The next day one of my sheep had to be killed for meat,-for some of the men had a most unaccountable prejudice against horse and mule flesh. The mule, I grant, was stringy, for she was old, and had done a great deal of work. But the horse was what butchers would describe as "prime."

September 25th.-We came to a water-hole in the sandy river bed, at a place where it was flanked with deep reeds. Stewartson had made us travel in the middle of the day, and right in the midst of the deep sand of the river-he seemed to have a most marvellous dread of lions, though at this season of the year night is the only fit time for travel, and I saw clearly that the mules were knocked up; indeed, we only travelled three hours a day. There were lions roaring about us all night, and as there was a long reach of dry reeds, we set fire to it. It makes a glorious bonfire, frightens the wild beasts, and improves the pasturage very much.

26th.-Intensely hot. We passed some rhinoceros spoors, and had a long chase after him, walking or running many miles, but without success; the chase, fortunately, led us parallel to our course, so that we regained the cart pretty easily. In the middle of the day we met some Ghou Damup, and persuaded four of them to join us. I had a great curiosity about these natives. It was so peculiar to see Negroes speaking the language of a light-coloured race, the Hottentots, and that too in a far more northern part of Africa than Hottentots