CHAPTER VII. 



SAULTED HORSES YOKE-OXEN MY ATTENDANTS. 



Horse-Sickness Where found Season of the Epidemic Its Racial Effects 

 Symptoms Value of Saulted Horses Death of a Horse from this Disease 

 Suggested Remedies Lung-Sickness Proposed Cures Leading Oxen 

 Hints for the Proper Care of Oxen Dental Surgeon, pro tern. I extract the 

 wrong Tooth Difficulties about my Attendants Suspicious Cattle-dealers 

 Their Little Grame Caution to Travellers How Missionaries get on 

 Umganey Jim Imp The Interpreter's Speech A Secret Benefactor. 



I HAVE alluded in the previous chapter to salted or, 

 more correctly, saulted horses ; and as those unac- 

 quainted with African travel may be ignorant of its 

 meaning, the expression so frequently occurring, I will 

 endeavour to give an explanation of it. 



North of the Vaal river, particularly on the banks 

 of the Limpopo and in many of the regions beyond, 

 horse-sickness prevails to a frightful extent. I have 

 known one hundred horses from the Free State driven 

 to Bamanwatto, with the hope that five or six would 

 " sault," but all died. The consequence of this is, that 

 a horse worth about six pounds in the Free State will 

 fetch from a hundred to a hundred and twenty pounds 

 among the Bechuanas, and a hundred and fifty pounds 

 in the Matabele country. The season when this 

 epidemic rages is from December to June ; but, strange 

 to say, if an animal once gets the disease, and recovers, 

 it never has it again. A horse is then called "saulted," 

 the expression being of Boer origin. I also learned 

 from Mr. Mackenzie, the missionary at Soshong, that 



