306 TROUBLE ATTENDANT ON A HERD OF CATTLE. 



about, bellowing and moaning. It is enough to discourage 

 the stoutest heart. 



When arriving at a place where we supposed water was 

 to be found, the plan usually adopted, in order to guard 

 against the cattle destroying our work, was to send them 

 away to pasture. In the mean time, every available man 

 went speedily to work with such implements as were pro- 

 curable : spades, wooden troughs, pieces of wood or of bark, 

 were indifferently put in requisition ; and even our hands 

 were used with great effect, though not without sustaining 

 injury. Having worked the aperture of sufficient depth and 

 width, it was fenced in by thorn-bushes, leaving only a single 

 entrance. The oxen were then sent for, and allowed to ap- 

 proach singly or in greater number, according to the extent 

 of the water. Sometimes, however, if the nature of the 

 gTOund did not permit the cattle to have access to the water, 

 a hollow was scooped in the earth near the edge of the pit, 

 into which (or into a piece of sail-cloth, if at hand) the water 

 was poured by means of small wooden pails, usually de- 

 nominated "bamboos." 



Owing to this tedious process, coupled with the slowness 

 with which water filters through sand, and the immense 

 quantity (usually five or six bucketsful) that a thirsty ox 

 will drink, and the quarrelsome disposition of the animals 

 themselves, watering four hundred head of cattle will often 

 occupy a whole day or night ; and, since a person is in a 

 great degree dependent on his cattle, whether for food, draft, 

 &c., he himself must never think of refreshment or rest until 

 their wants have been provided for. 



The scarcity of water, and the uncertainty of finding it 

 in these parched regions is so great, that when, after a long 

 day's journey, the anxiously-looked-for pool is found to be dry, 

 it is almost enough to drive a man mad, especially if he be 

 a stranger to the country, and unaccustomed to traversing 

 the African wilds. One's cogitations at such times are apt 



