THE KANYA-VELD 79 



them a scanty, hard-bitten, salamander-like 

 vegetation strikes root. The Kanya-veld is 

 hardly, if at all, higher than the rest of the 

 desert. As to what the geological explanation 

 of this strange phenomenon may be, I have 

 no idea whatever. 



No one knew the extent of the Kanya-veld, 

 for that part of the desert had not then been 

 surveyed, nor even roughly charted. Before 

 reaching the main Kanya-tract one crossed 

 narrow strips of the closely-packed spheres; 

 these lay outside it, after the manner of reefs 

 surrounding a coral island. 



My journey of that day was to me the most 

 important event of the excursion, — yet it had 

 no definite object beyond the assuagement of 

 that hunger for a realisation of the ultimate 

 expression of solitude which sometimes gnaws 

 at my soul. It was of what I was then to rea- 

 lise that I dreamt through night hours spent 

 alone on a certain rocky hillside, when the east 

 wind, with the scent of the desert on its wings 

 and the music of the waste in its lightest 

 whisper, streamed between me and the stars. 

 But why try to explain "the inexplicable? You 

 who have not felt a like longing would never 

 understand; you who have, will know without 

 a word. 



