162 LODGES IN THE WILDERNESS 



for themselves. But in the forest the male 

 covers the retreat of his family and is always 

 the last to flee. There is probably some con- 

 nexion between the foregoing rule and the cir- 

 cumstance that the female of the antelope of 

 the desert, — the oryx, the hartebeest and the 

 blesbuck — is horned more or less as the male 

 is, whereas the females of the forest dwellers, 

 — the bushbuck, the koodoo and the impala — 

 are hornless. 



The horses had been watered, fed and 

 picketed; we had eaten our supper and 

 finished our pipes. I took my kaross and wan- 

 dered away for a few hundred yards so as to be 

 alone and undisturbed by snoring men or 

 snorting horses. The only possible cause of 

 anxiety was in respect of snakes. We killed a 

 large yellow cobra just at dusk. The spoor of 

 the cobra, — the hooded yellow death, — could 

 be seen among the tussocks in every direction. 

 The previous year one of my men had had a 

 horse killed by a snake close to where the 

 wagon then stood; the skeleton of the animal 

 was still in evidence. 



In the vicinity of the Brabies vley the sand 

 was rather firmer than in most other parts of 

 the desert; consequently cities of the desert 



