for special landmarks, have made a complete circle. 

 Thus we eventually came back to the track on which 

 we had started for home, and the things that then 

 looked so convincingly familiar were things seen 

 during the first attempt to return, and not, as I 

 supposed, landmarks on the original koodoo trail. 

 Jock's footprints in the molehill were only a few 

 hundred yards from the Cigarette Kopje and about 

 the same distance from where we had lost the koodoo 

 spoor ; and we were, at that moment, actually within 

 a mile of the waggons. 



It seems incredible that one could be so near and 

 not see or understand. Why should one walk in 

 circles instead of taking a fairly straight line ? How 

 was it possible to pass Cigarette Kopje and not recog- 

 nise it, for I must have gone within fifty yards or 

 less of it ? As for not seeing things, the answer is that 

 the bush does not allow you to see much: the 

 waggons, for instance, might as well have been a 

 hundred miles away. As for Cigarette Kop things do 

 not look the same unless seen from the same point ; 

 moreover there are heaps of things easily visible 

 which you will never see at all because you are 

 looking only for something else : you carry a precon- 

 ceived idea, a sort of picture in your eye, and every- 

 thing that does not fit in with that is not noticed 

 not even seen. As for walking in circles, it is my 

 belief that most people, just like most horses, have a 

 natural leaning or tendency towards one side or the 

 other, and unless checked unconsciously indulge it. 



When riding in the veld, or any open country, you 



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