3i6 AFRICAN NATURE NOTES chap. 



scorched and scant. But they were too parched to 

 do so ; and so, hungry, weary, and terribly thirsty, 

 the poor brutes were once more yoked to the heavy 

 waggons just as the short twilight of the early tropic 

 night was giving place to a bright moonlight, for it 

 wanted but a couple of days to full moon. The 

 whole of this second night we travelled slowly 

 southwards, with short intervals of rest. 



I kept awake once more throughout the night, in 

 order to time the periods of travel and the intervals 

 of rest. As we were four Europeans, we might 

 have kept awake turn and turn about, and turned 

 in for a sleep in one of the waggons when not on 

 dutv ; but when travelling through the desert I am 

 always too anxious to be able to sleep, whilst 

 making a push from one water to another, and 

 always make a point of timing the treks myself, and 

 keeping the waggon -drivers and leaders up to the 

 mark ; for these latter naturally get worn out during 

 such journeys, and often are so tired that when a 

 halt is called, they just throw themselves down 

 where they stand and lie there like logs till it is 

 time to move on a^ain. 



During the night we passed the deep limestone 

 well and shallow pan of Inkowani, both of which 

 were perfectly dry, and presently Christmas Day 

 1879 dawned upon us, and the cruel sun was soon 

 once more shining over the desolate wilderness 

 around us. By this time it had become evident 

 that our bullocks could not possibly pull the heavy 

 waggons much farther. One or other of them 

 was constantly lying down, and had to be mercilessly 

 beaten or its tail twisted or bitten before it could 

 be induced to get up again and struggle on a little 

 farther. Although the waggons of our Bamang- 

 wato friends were much less heavily laden than 

 ours, their bullocks were much inferior, and on the 

 whole in quite as sorry a plight. 



