152 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XVIII. 



tions in the art of manufacturing " tallows" from 

 the fat of the eland. 



Having thus freed ourselves from the duns, it was 

 discovered that the oxen had gone off in search of 

 water — not one of the Hottentots having thought 

 proper to remain with them, although positively en- 

 joined to do so. Three hours elapsed ere they were 

 recovered, and before we had proceeded many miles, 

 the sheep were missed. Andries being immediately 

 sent back upon horseback, found Frederick lying 

 under a bush in a state of stupefaction, the conse- 

 quence of his frequent libations to the jolly god. 

 The sheep, as might have been expected, had availed 

 themselves of his drowsiness to levant, but were 

 traced up and recovered. 



In spite of all these provoking delays, we con- 

 trived early in the afternoon to reach the Mariqua, 

 about thirty miles below the point whence it issues 

 from the mountain chain. The approach to this 

 small, but beautiful river, is picturesque in the 

 highest degree. Emerging suddenly from an ex- 

 tensive wood of magnificent thorn-trees, we passed 

 a village surrounded by green corn-fields, and then 

 descended by a winding path into a lawn covered 

 with a thick and verdant carpet of the richest grass, 

 bounded by a deep and shady belt of the many 

 stemmed acacia. These beautiful trees margined 

 the river on either hand far as the view extended — 

 and clothed with a vest of golden blossoms, diffused 

 a delicious and grateful odour around. Single 

 mokaalas, and detached clumps of slender mimosas. 



