But these things were considered trifles : the piece 

 that always ' brought the house down ' was the 

 Shangaan gang trick, which on one occasion nearly 

 got us all into serious trouble. The natives going 

 to or from the gold-fields travel in gangs of from four 

 or five to forty or fifty ; they walk along in Indian 

 file, and even when going across the veld or walking on 

 wide roads they wind along singly in the footsteps of 

 the leader. What prompted the dog to start this 

 new game I cannot imagine : certainly no one could 

 have taught it to him ; and as well as one could judge, 

 he did it entirely ' off his own bat,' without anything 

 to lead up to or suggest it. 



One day a gang of about thirty of these Shangaans, 

 each carrying his load of blankets, clothing, pots, 

 billies and other valuables on his head, was coming 

 along a footpath beside the road some twenty yards 

 away from the waggons. Jock strolled out and sat 

 himself down in the middle of the path ; it was the 

 way he did it and his air, utterly devoid of hostile 

 or even serious purpose, that attracted my attention 

 without rousing any doubts. The leader of the gang, 

 however, was suspicious and shied off wide into the 

 veld ; he passed in a semicircle round Jock, a good 

 ten yards away, and came safely back to the path 

 again, and the dog with his nose in the air merely eyed 

 him with a look of humorous interest and mild curi- 

 osity. The second kaffir made the loop shorter, and 

 the third shorter still, as they found their alarm and 

 suspicions unjustified ; and so on, as each came along, 

 the loop was lessened until they passed in safety almost 



212 



