THE LEGEND OF JAN PRINSLOO'S KLOOF. 385 



to take possession of the kloof the new purchaser fell 

 ill and died, and the place has never since been 

 occupied. 



Although it is nearly thirty years since these 

 events took place, and Mrs. Goodrick has now a 

 grown up family around her, she has never quite 

 thrown off the terror of that awful night. Even now 

 she will wake with a start if she hears any sudden 

 cry in her sleep, thinking for the moment it is the 

 death scream of Prinsloo's Kloof. As for the 

 haunted kloof, it lies to this day in desolation 

 black and utter. No footfall wakes its rugged 

 echoes ; the grim baboons keep watch and ward ; 

 the carrion aas-vogels * wheel and circle high above 

 its cliffs, gazing down from their aerial dominion 

 with ever-searching eyes ; the black and white ravens 

 seek in its fastnesses for their food, looking, as they 

 swoop hither and thither, as if still in half mourning 

 for the deed of blood of bygone years ; and the 

 antelopes and leopards wander free and undisturbed. 

 But no sign of human life is there, or seems ever 

 likely to be ; and if by cruel fate, the straying 

 traveller should haplessly outspan for his night's 

 repose, by the haunted farmhouse, on the night of 

 the 1 5th of January, he will yet see enacted, so the 

 neighbouring farmers say, the horrible drama of Jan 

 Prinsloo's death. 



Vultures. 



25 



