206 LODGES IN THE WILDERNESS 



Endor. However, she looked wiry. The 

 other was young — not more than thirty. Was 

 she married? Yes. Where was her husband? 

 There he sat, with downcast visage, among 

 the rejected. Then I would not take her. 

 The lady was neither well-favoured nor 

 savoury; nevertheless I had my character to 

 consider, and the punishment locally pre- 

 scribed for the abduction of a married woman 

 — even with her husband's consent — nwht 

 have been three dozen with a strop. 



But the members of the Raad had selected 

 her. She threw the tanned skin over her head 

 and wailed. Beauty in distress prevailed; but 

 her husband also had to be included in the 

 contingent. The two ladies had names, but 

 such were difficult to remember and almost im- 

 possible to pronounce, so I decided to sub- 

 stitute for them, respectively, Fauna and 

 Flora. The special work of these insistent 

 females was to be the collection of natural 

 history specimens. 



Very early that morning I sent some of the 

 children out to look for reptiles, insects and 

 miscellaneous small deer. It was principally 

 beetles and lizards they brought back. None 

 were very rare. Julodis Gariepina, a beetle 

 somewhat resembling a green and yellow 



