across rapid rivers; by evening we were
utterly exhausted, especially my sister, who
was so weary that she was glad to lie down
on a pile of dried grass, beside the glowing fire,
regardless that she had no shelter from the
night dews save a bush, and no food save a
little milk, and some elephant cabbage stewed
in our iron pot.

Fortunately for us the air was calm and
mild. The perfume of the flowers hung
balmily on the night air, and the glorious
constellations of the south shone down on us
through clear atmosphere, as if to raise
our thoughts above earth and its cares.
Later in the evening, I lay down near my
sister and niece, to watch their slumbers;
but I was soon faster asleep than
they, and did not awake until my sister
laid her hand upon my arm, in great
alarm, whispering me to listen to a horrid
yelling laugh or scream which sounded close
to us. Lying on the ground, along which the
sound reverberated, she had not recognised
the well-known cry of the hyena.

Soon after, the moaning bark of the jackal
wailed round our little camp, and farther off
the roar of the leopard echoed through the
arches of the woods. Gradually these sounds
multiplied, and were repeated on every side,
until it seemed as if the whole plain were
alive with beasts of prey. Never during the
whole of our journey had the wild animals
been so numerous or so near; and, though I
knew our often replenished fire was held to be
a sufficient safeguard, yet, with my dear ones
lying upon the ground, the near neighbourhood
of the wild beasts terrified me; not
daring to trust myself to lie down again, I sat
watching while the Southern Cross glided
athwart the sky, and until it was lost in the
haze of dawn, when the savage night-wanderers
crept back to their lairs, and all was
once more silent.

By sunrise we were astir, for it was needful
to travel early and late, to avoid the
burning heat of noon. We had feared that
want of food would have been added to our
other trials; but that was mercifully spared
us, for the plains proved so full of hares and
partridges that we killed them with stones
and knobbed sticks. Hans also found an old
rusty assegai, which he sharpened against
a stone; when night came, he and the
leader stole out with it into the darkness,
and in two hours returned with a buck,
which they had surprised and slain.

Thus passed the first day of our foot
travels; four similar days followed; with
each we grew more weary, and on the
fifth we were compelled to stop, that my
sister might rest.

A few days more brought us to a
green savannah, plentifully intersected by
the spoor of cattle, which assured us that
we were not far from some kraal; a few
more hours brought us in sight of a cluster
of gigantic ant-hills dotting a slope leading
down to a little river. A savage-looking
horde came out to gaze at us; tall, muscular
black men, clad in skins, burly black
women, similarly attired; and innumerable
children, unincumbered with clothing. Nor
was our own appearance particularly
civilised, for we were tanned, toil-worn, and
travel-stained; our clothing was torn and
discoloured, and its defects made good with
hare-skins—sometimes pinned on with the
long sharp thorns of the mimosa, at others
sewn by the slender supply of thread which
chanced to be in my sister's pocket; our
shoes were worn out; and their place supplied
by veldt schoon, or brogues made of
undressed buckskin.

The people among whom we now were,
though they had before seen white traders,
had never beheld a white woman, and they
were perfectly enchanted with my sister and
her little one. Despite all our hardships, my
sister's hair fell round her face in long brown
ringlets, and Birdie's little head was
covered with waves of gold. These adornments
were the especial admiration of all the
Kafir women, and before evening every one
in the kraal was busily engaged in pulling
and tugging at her own hirsute wool, and
bedaubing it with sheep-tail oil, in the hope
of soon becoming the happy possessor of
glossy ringlets. Their efforts certainly
effected a considerable change in their
appearance, for their congregated heads resembled
a flock of fantail pigeons in mourning more
than any other objects in creation.

The Kafirs—between whom and us Hans
stood interpreter—received us kindly,
expressing much noisy sympathy with our
misfortunes, interspersed with witty
observations which sent the whole community
into roars of laughter. They made us
presents of maize and thick milk, for which
they begged my waistcoat buttons, and they
offered us a hut to sleep in; but we had
reasons for declining this civility, and contenting
ourselves with our usual bush shelter.

My greatest anxiety was to obtain horses
to lighten the remainder of our journey, but
the Kafirs either could not, or would not,
spare us any. However, after a long and
pompous speech from the chief, in which he
expressed his sorrow for our many disasters,
his joy that we were again following the
right path, and his wish to aid us on our
journey, this man of vast herds concluded by
bestowing on us, expressly as gifts, two
indifferent pack-oxen. And never did crafty
trader exact a larger recompense for his goods
than this mighty chief did; for, under wily
excuses and pretences, he stripped us of every
available article he discovered us to possess:
from my chain and seals, with which I had
hoped to purchase horses (Hans had hidden
my watch, or it would have shared the same
fate), down to the glittering steel pins which
fastened my sister's shawl.

We had still some few articles of jewellery