130 THE GREAT THIRST LAND. 



little ducky, tootsey-wootsey, might come in appropriate. 

 And see, when all is found out in the morning, for of 

 course it will be, how clever your wife will think you, 

 how clever all the servants, individually and collectively, 

 will think you, and in fact you will be justified in con- 

 sidering yourself no end of a fellow! IST.B. Don't 

 take a fourth glass of beer, it will make you hiccough, 

 and when people do so a suspicion most unjustly some- 

 times arises that they have taken more than is good 

 for them. 



The above was in effect communicated to me by an 

 old married man, and is therefore not original. I say 

 this for my own protection, as ladies are sometimes 

 testy about advice of this kind being given to their 

 husbands. 



We turned out at daybreak a glorious morning 

 with scarcely a cloud to be seen. This portion of the 

 day on these African uplands is most invigorating, just 

 sufficiently cold to pull you together, induce you to 

 take exercise, and stimulate your appetite. Our treck 

 was a long one, a considerable portion of which 

 followed the margin of a marsh, in which could be seen 

 an abundance of waterfowl, prominent among w^hich 

 was the Kaffir crane, with long streaming black ribbon- 

 like feathers hanging beside his tail. These plumes are 

 much valued by the natives, who wear them in their 

 hair on all State occasions. Immense numbers of these 

 ornamental and useful birds are shot on this account. 

 As they are great destroyers of reptiles of all descriptions, 

 and so are public benefactors, they ought to be protected. 

 A very large dark-coloured goose, called by the Boers 

 William-maccow, was also abundant. One of them was 

 s hot ; it is a gross-looking bird, and when cooked was 



