82 LODGES IN THE WILDERNESS 



in the sand, he was apparently as fresh as 

 ever. 



One of the dangers of a desert chase lay in 

 the mouse-city, in which on getting entangled 

 an ordinary horse was apt to check so suddenly 

 in his course that he rolled head-over-heels 

 and crushed his rider. But Prince had quite 

 an original method of meeting the difficulty : 

 he spread his legs out in some extraordinary 

 way, sank down until his belly almost touched 

 the ground, and floundered through. The 

 strange thing was that he did not seem to 

 break his stride. There was no jerk ; the 

 rider was in no way incommoded. I would 

 have given a great deal for a side view of 

 the performance ; it must have resembled 

 somewhat the progress of an heraldic griffin 

 rampaging horizontally instead of verti- 

 cally. 



Where the surface was suitable, neither too 

 hard nor too soft, we cantered slowly along, 

 careless as the wind that gently agitated the 

 shocks of " toa." Game was at times in sight, 

 but very far off. Three hartebeest sped away 

 over the sky-line, their forms looming im- 

 mense and grotesque just as the mirage seized 

 them. I wondered what they looked like when 

 thrown on the sky-screen and seen from a 



