314 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XXXV. 



pit to prevent them from straying, were visited during 

 the night by a party of hyaenas^ which slaughtered 

 three, and drove the residue to the summit of a high 

 hill, where they were found the following morning. 



Having travelled until dark on the 3rd without 

 being able to discover any water, we halted in a wide 

 plain under an isolated hill, which, it will be seen, 

 was destined to be the scene of sad disaster and 

 anxiety. A party of Bushwomen, who had their 

 den among the rocks at its base, presently arrived, 

 bringing fuel and eatable wild roots for barter. One 

 of them, whose foot measured barely four inches in 

 length, was a most bewitching creature, and com- 

 pletely turned the heads of the Hottentots. Besides 

 being far more elaborately embelHshed with red 

 clay and ornaments of fat — and perhaps even more 

 redolent of villanous smells than any lady we had 

 hitherto seen, this Venus carried a jackal's tail by 

 way of a pocket-handkerchief, and spoke the melli- 

 jfluous Dutch language with surprising fluency. It 

 appeared that she had effected her escape from a 

 boor residing in the Sneuwbergen, whose slave she 

 had been from infancy ; but we could elicit little 

 information of value, beyond the existence of a dirty 

 pool about two miles distant, whither the cattle 

 were immediately driven. 



Since leaving the Cashan Mountains, one or two 

 of our oxen had been almost daily abandoned ; but 

 including Mutlee, the old cow, and a dwarf bull — 

 neither of which royal gifts could be worked in the 

 teams — we were still the proprietors of thirty-eight 



