28 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



Here I sat down, and instantly asked an old Bushman 

 for water ; but, would you believe it ? the accursed 

 old heathen, the ingenuous chiki of nature, would not 

 give me any, but, holding a giraffe's intestine full of the 

 precious fluid under his arm, said, " Buy the water " ! 

 The " vley " was only about 200 yards off, but when 

 a man has been four days and three nights without 

 anything to eat or drink, he does not care to go even 

 200 yards farther than he can help ; yet, sooner than 

 be thus taken advantage of, I would have done so, 

 and was just getting up when a little boy came in 

 from milking the goats, with a large calabash full of 

 milk. On seeing this I changed my mind, and pull- 

 ing out a large clasp -knite, the only marketable 

 article I possessed, I said, " Reka marsi " (Til buy 

 the milk), and soon got not only it, but a large 

 gourd of water besides. Was it not a treat ! and, 

 1 daresay, about the very best thing I could have 

 taken in my state. 



Thinking that 1 should be too weak to do much 

 walking on the following day, I tried to make them 

 understand that if one of them would go to the 

 waggons and tell my friends where I was, so that 

 thev could bring a horse for me to ride, I would 

 pay him handsomely. However, the few words of 

 Sechuana I knew were quite insufficient to explain my 

 meaning ; so there was nothing for it but to make 

 up my mind to walk to Pelatsi, which, according to 

 Mr. Baines's observations, is twenty-five miles distant 

 from Shakani. One man offered to go with me (for 

 a consideration) and carry my rifle, and also, on my 

 promising to pay him an exorbitant price for it in 

 powder on my arrival at the waggons, gave me a 

 very small piece of steinbuck meat ; after eating 

 which, and drinking unheard-of quantities of water. 



