274 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XXXI. 



accompany our party, they were utterly unable to 

 keep pace. Before losing sight of them we dis- 

 covered that they were members of the Barapootsa 

 tribe, acknowledging an independent king named 

 Bapootsa, and occupying the hills at the head of 

 the Likwa; which river, they assured us, we could 

 not possibly reach before the next night. In ac- 

 cordance with African caprice, which assigns a 

 parasol to the male instead of to the female sex, 

 these sons of the desert were each provided with a 

 long staff decorated with the black body feathers 

 of the ostrich. Besides affording protection from 

 the sun's rays, these implements not unfrequently 

 prove serviceable in the chase ; and being stuck 

 into the ground at the proper moment, divert the 

 attention of a charging lion from the object of his 

 vengeance, and thus enable the rest of the party 

 to rush in and dispatch him with their assagais. 



By sunset, having abandoned two of the sick 

 oxen, and accomplished twenty-five miles, our farther 

 advance was prevented by the pack-waggon sticking 

 fast in a morass. It was at length extricated at the 

 expense of a trek-touw, to repair which a tax was 

 levied on the hides of two elands that were grazing 

 in the neighbourhood, and we then drew up in a 

 strong position, before an old stone enclosure, which 

 served as a cattle pound, the rear being fortified by 

 an isolated tumulus. Andries having confidently 

 predicted some unpleasant occurrence, Coeur de 

 Lion perched himself upon the summit of this emi- 

 nence, and maintained another weary vigil through- 



