With Flashlight and Rifle -^ 



we heard all around us a crackliiiLj" and rustlino^ in the 

 leaves and dry l^ranches. There were no trees that one 

 could clinil) ; it was impossibhi to take a step forward 

 in the prickly thicket. Seated together, we wore through 

 minute upon minute ; the hours stretched out interminably. 

 Suddenly, to our terror, not farther than ten steps 

 from us, there breaks out suddenly the howl ot a hyiena. 

 I lift my gun at once, but then the thought comes to me 

 that I may perhaps need my few cartridges for sterner 

 foes. We manage to drive the brute away by shouting- 

 and by throwing at it bits of ear:h and fragments broken 

 from the buffalo- skull. 



But the " fissi " does not go far. It keeps circling 

 round, howling for hours, kept at a distance by our 

 shouting — a strange dialogue between beast of prey 

 and human being in the lonely wilderness ! 



The hycena's getting so near has reminded me ot how 

 noiselessly lions and leopards could steal upon us, and 

 vividly does the imaginary picture paint itselt over and 

 over again in my mind's eye. But once more the pangs 

 of thirst overpower every other feeling. INIy temples 

 throb, my heart beats quickly and violently. Amongst 

 the thousand thoughts and fancies that crowd feverishly 

 through my brain, o/ic thought is ever foremost: water! 

 water ! What would 1 not give for a glass of water ! I feel 

 I would willingly give a third part of all my only worldly 

 goods for a drauQ^ht of water ! More than that — the halt ! 

 No, the whole ! Unconditionally! Cool, rushing streams, 

 water-nymphs, and a thousand such apparitions does the 

 tortured brain conjure up for itself. But all is in vain, 



588 



