206 LODGES IN THE WILDERNESS 



Endor. However, she looked wiry. The 

 other was young not more than thirty. Was 

 she married? Yes. Where was her husband? 

 There he sat, with downcast visage, among 

 the rejected. Then I would not take her. 

 The lady was neither well-favoured nor 

 savoury; nevertheless I had my character to 

 consider, and the punishment locally pre- 

 scribed for the abduction of a married woman 

 even with her husband's consent might 

 have been three dozen with a strop. 



But the members of the Raad had selected 

 her. She threw the tanned skin over her head 

 and wailed. Beauty in distress prevailed ; but 

 her husband also had to be included in the 

 contingent. The two ladies had names, but 

 such were difficult to remember and almost im- 

 possible to pronounce, so I decided to sub- 

 stitute for them, respectively, Fauna and 

 Flora. The special work of these insistent 

 females was to be the collection of natural 

 history specimens. 



Very early that morning I sent some of the 

 children out to look for reptiles, insects and 

 miscellaneous small deer. It was principally 

 beetles and lizards they brought back. None 

 were very rare. Julodis Gariepina, a beetle 

 somewhat resembling a green and yellow 



