Sso THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



fence round them is not strong, I think you bad better tie the bul- 

 locks up to their yokes." Advice from such a source was not to be 

 disregarded, for this man had spent all his life among the wild beasts 

 of interior Africa, and knew their habits and haunts as well as we do 

 those of any of our domestic animals. Thus, after much trouble, and 

 with the assistance of mv lanterns, the bullocks were removed from 

 the kraal and made fast to their respective yokes, while the end of the 

 trtk-toic farthest from the wagon was firmlv secured to a tree bv the 

 aid of a green rAetm, the brake on the after-wheels being firmly 

 jammed down. Having taken these precautions. William bade me good- 

 night and turned in among his companions under my desert house. 

 The poet says. M Coming events cast their shadows before." Some 

 feeling of this kind must have actuated me, for I had an intuitive per- 

 ception that, before daybreak made its appearance, some misfortune 

 or other would occur. Again and again I rilled my pipe, and almost 

 as often took mv rifles from their rack, to assure myself that their 

 breeches were not under the drip that came from many a rent in the 

 tilt. I tried to read, but, although I had that wonderfully entertain- 

 incr work, "The Woman in White," I could not concentrate mv mind 



- * * 



upon it. 



Twice I had <rone forth and added fuel to the far from brilliant 

 watch-fires, and while doinsr so did not fail to observe that none of 

 the bullocks had lain down, but with anxious, distended eves ofazed 

 earnestly up to windward. Trek oxen are, without exception, obtsw 

 nate, perverse creatures, sometimes taking alarm where nothing is to 

 be dreaded, at other times not taking the slightest precaution to avoid 

 danger where it must have been obvious to them. So, seeing nothing, 

 hearing nothing. I retook mvself to mv shelter. I had about finished 

 another pipe, when a sudden prolonged pull upon the triJc-toir so 

 violently shook my domicile that, if proper precautions had not been 

 taken, it doubtless would have been overturned. At this moment 

 my Bechuana boy placed his head under the curtain of the tilt, and 

 in smothered words told me that he knew there were lions round us. 

 Not doubting the truth of his statement, I professed to disbelieve it, 

 for. said I. " Whv don't the doss challenge them? Where are the 

 lazy curs': " 



William for that was my boy's name promptly answered : "If 

 one or two lions here, dogs bark : but I think that there are seven or 

 eieht. and that thev are scattered round about us. so that does are 

 afraid to go into the bush." Scarcely had my boy done speaking 

 when I thought that the wasron must reallv over, for the horses 

 that were tied to the sheltered side of it commenced to pull and jerk 

 their halters with such violence as several times to raise the weather- 

 wheels an inch or two off the ground. As nothing so reassures these 

 animals, when alarmed, as the human voice, I got out of my domicile 

 and stood at their heads and talked to them in such kindlv lanffuase 



