CttAP. XXXVI.] SOUTHERN AFRICA. 323 



Passing onwards, our attention was next attracted to 

 a headless trunk, and at no great distance from it — 

 the white eyes glaring upon us as if still alive — was 

 the hornless cranium of Mutlee. Every eye turned 

 upon the caitiff' Audries, and peals of ill-timed 

 merriment bvirst from every Hottentot mouth. The 

 arm of retribution had for once descended on a right 

 worthy victim. Maddened with rage at the heart- 

 rending prospect before us, again and again did we 

 search every chink and cranny, and unweariedly did 

 we cast about for the trail of the marauders. " Grim 

 satyr-faced baboons" railed hoarsely at us from 

 their rocky clefts, and, to whichever side we turned, 

 the slope of the hill was besprinkled with mouldering 

 human bones ; but, after the closest scrutiny, no 

 object could be discovered upon which to wreak our 

 vengeance. A rhee-buck, that our early approach 

 had disturbed, having bounded through the encamp- 

 ment, and given the alarm, the " dwellers with owls 

 and bats," although doubtless spectators of all that 

 we were doing, had effectually concealed themselves 

 from observation, and, after the strictest search, nine 

 tracks only could be discovered. Of these, six were 

 females, and one was that of our bewitching acquaint- 

 ance. Barely four inches in length, but yet fully 

 developed, there could be no mistaking her foot- 

 mark ; and it now became evident that, whilst she 

 and her elfin colleagues had been aiding and 

 abetting to our ruin from the very commencement, 

 our luckless followers had fled — not from the over- 



