68 HOESE-SICKNESS HANS LAESEN. 



ease to poisonous herbs, of which the animals have inad- 

 vertently partaken ; others, to the dew ; and others, again, 

 to the eating the young grass;* but all these suppositions 

 are highly improbable, for reasons which it would be un- 

 necessary to enter into here. 



Fatal as the disease is to horses, yet, happily, there are 

 places (even in districts where it commits the greatest rav- 

 ages) that are always exempt from it. And, as these locali- 

 ties are well known to the natives, if one's horse be sent to 

 them prior to the commencement of the sickly season — usu- 

 ally the months of November and December — the animals in- 

 variably escape the malady. The attack of our animals was 

 an unusual exception to this rule, for they fell victims to the 

 disease fully a month prior to the rainy season. 



From the Orange River on the south, and as far north as 

 Europeans have penetrated from the Cape side, this deadly 

 disease is known to prevail, and is one of the greatest draw- 

 backs to successful traveling in South Africa. 



CHAPTEE V. 



Hans Larsen. — His Exploits. — He joins the Expedition. — How people 

 travel on Ox-back. — Rhinoceros Hunt. — Death of the Beast. — 

 "Look before you Leap." — Anecdote proving the Truth of the Prov- 

 erb. — Hans and the Lion. — The Doctor in Difficulties. — Sufferings 

 on the Naarip Plain. — Arrival at Scheppmansdorf. 



When at the Cape we heard much of an individual named 

 Hans Larsen, who was distinguished in a very remarkable 

 degree for courage, energy, perseverance, and endurance. 

 This man was a Dane by birth, and a sailor by profession ; 



* A similar notion prevails with regard to that most curious Kttle 

 animal, the lemming (Jemmus norvegicus, Worm.), on whose mvsteri- 

 ous appearance and disappearance so many hypotheses have been un- 

 satisfactorily expended. -See Lloyd's " Scandinavian Adventiires," 

 vol. ii., chap, v. 



