240 Among Men and Horses. 



trips across the frontier to shoot, into a serious predicament 

 by, when he was over the * line ' one day, bidding his friends 

 good-bye and riding off towards Natal with, of course, a 

 ' parcel ' concealed somewhere about him. There were lots 

 of stories about the detectives who used to fish along the 

 roads by means of uncut stones which they laid down as 

 ground bait, and when, from their place of concealment, 

 they saw a verdant passer-by pick up the diamond and go 

 on as if nothing particular had occurred, they would sally 

 forth, seize him, and bear him off to summary injustice. As 

 many of the female's ' tees ' were also demi-mondaines^ they 

 had unusually good facilities, which they fully utilised, for 

 ' trapping ' their lovers. 



One of the first horses given to me to break-in at 

 Kimberley was a black stallion that was driven along with 

 his harem of about a dozen mares into the enclosure in which 

 I was holding my class. He was about six years old, and 

 was so wild and violent that although he had been caught 

 once or twice, he had successfully resisted all efforts which 

 had been made to secure him. In a short time I had him 

 saddled, and gave October the signal to mount. The 

 hitherto untamed one carried his black burden quietly round 

 the ring, and allowed the Basuto to dismount and mount 

 again without making any attempt at ' playing up.' Not 

 alone had all idea of active hostility against his captors been 

 removed out of his mind ; but the far more difficult task 

 of ' taking the sulk out of him ' had been accomplished for 

 the time being. His education was now so far advanced, 

 that he would require only a few more lessons of far less 

 severity than the first, to confirm the habit of obedience. 



Almost all the horses that were brought to me at Kim- 

 berley were semi-wild ones which were driven in off the veldt. 

 One of these subjects was followed into the ring by a goat ; 

 which tried to butt everyone who attempted to make him 

 quit his equine friend. The goat appeared to take an intelli- 

 gent interest in the proceedings, and as soon as I had 



