CHAP. VII. HUNTING WITH DOGS. 321 



and a message had come to say that, as it was gettmg so 

 hot, the earher we could manage to start the better. I 

 therefore sent the hounds on at daylight, and after 

 breakfast followed them on horseback. The formation 

 of each native tribe being very similar to that of each 

 nation, i.e. a lot of small clans incorporated together, 

 each division forms a separate band at hunting parties, 

 marriages, and dances ; though at tribal assemblages 

 they drop these distinctions, in the same way that in 

 national gatherings all tribal distinctions are lost. On 

 my arrival there, I found only one such clan on the 

 ground, squatted on a ridge like a row of baboons, wait- 

 ing for the rest. Soon, however, band after band came up 

 singing their hunting-songs, and before taking their places 

 with the rest, forming a semicircle and dancing before 

 them ; and when at last all had come I estimated them 

 at about eight hundred men. 



The country about to be beaten was a nearly level one 

 — slight depressions marking the " vlies," or damper parts, 

 where tangles of water-loving bushes grew, overshadowed 

 by the great water-boems ; and in places where the 

 dampness had resolved itself into a stream small patches 

 of jungle lined the banks. Large quantities of the rank 

 grass had been burned off, leaving their sharp stems pro- 

 truding — a fruitful source of lameness both to the dogs 

 and unshod natives. 



After a short performance by the head of the hunting 

 party (the man who had called it out) — which chiefly 

 consisted in asking the " amadhlozi," or shades of their 

 ancestors, to give them luck — the two wings were sent 

 round to form a circle, while the centre, in which the 



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