610

HOUSEHOLD WORDS.

[Conducted by

OF THE CAPE TRADE, the most peculiar and
profitable branch is that with the native
tribes. At present it is carried on in the
most primitive style. A trader will load a
couple of waggons with such goods as are
likely to sell among savages. Coarse cloth,
smart Manchester printed calicoes, blankets,
beads, brass curtain-rings (worn by the natives
as ornaments on their arms), soldiers' jackets,
wide-awake hats, &c. With this load he will
proceed across the colonial boundary, and
penetrate as far as he pleases into the interior,
calling where experience has shown him he is
likely to find customers, and selling his goods
like a hawker, or " Cheap Jack," in England.
But he seldom obtains money for his goods,–––
nor does he wish for it. He gets ivory,
ostrich feathers, wild-beast skins, horns, and,
in fact, all the rarest trophies of the chase.
With these he reloads his waggons for his
return home, and reaches the Colony after,
perhaps, six or eight months' absence, with a
load which fetches him at once, seven or eight
hundred–––sometimes a thousand–––pounds in
exchange for his outlay of one hundred and
fifty pounds.

It seems clear that the establishment of
trading stations in the interior of Southern
Africa would be most profitable to the pro-
jectors, and most advantageous to the native
tribes, by accustoming them to the sights and
habits of a civilised life.

The shopkeepers are rather jealous of the
merchants at the Cape. The latter are very
often so undignified as to sell a dozen pair of
stockings or a single hat, to the exceeding
disgust of retailers.

A Cape shop is a curiosity. It strikes a
man as odd, to buy his boots and his cheese,
or his hat and his sugar, at the same shop,–––
still more odd to purchase his wife a Chinese
shawl and his child a peg-top in the same
establishment.

THE WILD SPORTS' of South Africa have
been celebrated by many a writer, from Major
Cornwallis Harris down to Mr. Gordon dim-
ming. For large game the country is perhaps
the finest sporting ground in the world.
People come even from India to hunt the
lion and the buffalo, the rhinoceros and the
hippopotamus, the elephant, the giraffe, and
the innumerable varieties of wild deer, from
the delicate and graceful springbok to the
heavy and powerful gnu. Some of the most
dreaded amongst them are not nearly so ter-
rible as travellers' tales would persuade " the
gentlemen of England who sit at home at ease."
On one occasion I was riding through a
wood, with a single companion; we were on
a journey, and quite unarmed. At a little
open space in the woods we dismounted and
knee-haltered our horses to let them feed,
while we lazily stretched ourselves under a
tree, and " took a pull " at our pocket-pistols.
loaded with Cognac. A. slight rustling sound
was heard above our heads, and down came

something to the ground in front of us. It
vas a fine, full-grown, handsome leopard, who
coolly turned round and stared us in the face.
I very much doubt whether two respectable
young gentlemen ever felt in a greater fright
than my friend and myself at that moment.
The unwelcome visitor, however, merely
wagged his tail, and having apparently satis-
fied his curiosity as to our personal appear-
ance, trotted quietly off into the woods.
Without uttering a word we each drew a
i oath, took another pull at the eau-de-
vie, caught our horses, and put as many miles
as we could in a few minutes between our-
selves and that same wood.

The lion can even be companionable. Major
Nicholson occupies a farm near the north-
east boundary of the Colony. He is a great
sportsman, and goes out alone to look after a
lion with as much unconcern as a Regent
Street lounger seeks out a Skye-terrier as a
present for his lady-love. In one of his after-
noon rambles the Major fell in with a lion;
they were both going the same way and
jogged along for some distance silent, though
excellent friends. At length the lion stopped,
turned round, faced the Major, and sat on his
haunches like a great tom-cat. The Major,
not knowing how soon his majesty's tacit
treaty of peace might be broken with him,
levelled his piece, taking aim between the
eyes. He was just about to fire, when a sound
caused him to turn round; he then at once
understood that, the lion having been out for
a walk, his lady had come, like a dutiful wife,
to meet him. The Major drew back and cal-
culated the odds two to one in favour of the
quadrupeds and reserved his fire; deciding
that it would be little satisfaction to kill the
husband and be eaten by the wife, or vice versa
The respectable couple then continued their
walk alone, treating the Major with the most
sovereign contempt, and allowing him, like
Young Norval, to "mark the course they
took," and to follow them to their abode.
This he next day visited, with men, dogs, and
guns; and a week afterwards I was sleeping
soundly, in the Major's house, on the skin of
that same king of the forest, while his con-
sort's hide served me for a coverlid.

Although the keener sportsman prefers to
go beyond the colonial boundary for prey, yet
it is customary in the towns for a number of
friends to make up a shooting party, who sally
forth with waggons and a tent, which they
pitch on some agreeable spot, and stay for
several days, living al fresco, enjoying good
sport by day and good fare at the end of it,
with merry songs, toasts, and stories. Others
prefer hunting, mount their active little
horses, and. followed by a whole host of curs,
whose pedigrees would puzzle the most inge-
nious zoologist, sally forth in search of wild
bucks; and many a good run they enjoy, and
much do they contribute to the stock of good
things which grace- the table on the green-
sward at night.