198 THRILLING ADVENTURES. 



Wangkets, Batlapi, and Baharootzi. These poor wretches 

 live in small communities, and, being destitute of cattle, de- 

 pend entirely for subsistence on locusts, or such game as 

 chance may direct to their pitfalls. Crowds of them, attracted 

 by prey, now hovered round me in my hunting expeditions, 

 which were here particularly successful ; and having obtained 

 a plentiful supply of meat, with the luxuries of snuff and to- 

 bacco, for which they were constantly begging, under the 

 denominations of lishuena and muchoko, they composed them- 

 selves to sleep, appearing to be in the enjoyment of as much 

 happiness as man in a state of mere animal existence proba- 

 bly ever attains. Our little band was also instinctively at- 

 tended by a host of hungry vultures, who, little disturbed by 

 the presence of man, divided the office of carrion scavengers 

 with hyenas and jackals. Wheeling in circles high above 

 our heads, like small specks in the firmament, these vora- 

 cious birds were ever ready to pounce upon game that might 

 be shot, or upon the carcasses of oxen that perished on the 

 road devouring the largest bodies with a promptitude truly 

 surprising. 



" We had now crossed the unvaried level expanse of the 

 Chooi Desert, and were entering upon a country, which 

 though equally remarkable for its sameness of appearance 

 presented a different character. Immense sandy flats, with 

 a substratum of lime, were uniformly covered with mokaala 

 trees, low thorn bushes, and long grass, interspersed with 

 numerous dry tanks ; but no hill or conspicuous object that 

 could direct the footsteps of the wanderer. Before reaching 

 the Siklagole river, twenty-two miles, we passed many exten- 

 sive villages totally deserted ; rude earthen vessels, fragments 

 of ostrich egg-shells, and portions of the skins of wild ani- 

 mals, however, proving that they had been recently inhabited. 

 During the whole of this and the following day we saw no 

 human being, a circumstance which I note here, because it 

 added in no small degree to the troubles I am about to detail. 



