PLANTS OF THE KARROO. 55 



devotion rewarded by the recovery of my patient. 

 There it would squat for a few days, the picture of 

 misery ; its long neck lying along the ground in a limp, 

 despondent manner, suggestive of the attitudes of sea- 

 sick geese and ducks on the first day of a voyage. Two 

 or three times a day I would feed it, forcing its unwilling 

 bill open with one hand, while with the other I posted 

 large handfuls of porridge, mealies, or chopped prickly 

 pear leaves in the depths of its capacious letter-box of 

 a throat. All to no purpose ; it had made up its mind 

 to die, as every ostrich does immediately illness or 

 accident befalls it, and most resolutely did it carry out 

 its intention. 



The prickly pear, mischievous though it is, is not 

 altogether without its good qualities. Its juicy fruit, 

 though rather deficient in flavour, is delightfully cool 

 and refreshing in the dry heat of summer; and a kind 

 of treacle, by no means to be despised at those not in- 

 frequent times when butter is either ruinous in price 

 or quite unattainable, is ma<le from it. A strong, 

 coarse spirit, equal to the aguardiente of Cuba in 

 horrible taste and smell, is distilled from prickly pears ; 

 and though to us it seemed only fit to be burned in a 

 spirit-lamp, when nothing better could be procured, it 

 is nectar to the Boers and Hottentots, who drink 

 large quantities of it. Great caution is needed in 

 peeling the prickly pear, the proper way being to 

 impale the fruit on a fork or stick while you cut it 

 open and remove the skin. On no account must the 

 latter be touched with the hands, or direful con- 



