CHAPTEE XXXIV. 



THE LION OF THE GREAT THIRST LAND. 



No Water Ruby's Faintness Her Splendid Behaviour Meeting with a Lion 

 His Lordship turns tail We come upon Water Meet with English 

 Traders outspanned A Pleasant Time Dine with one another My Wagon 

 and theirs Excellent Feed A Lion within easy reach of me Prefer not to 

 be snapped up Bayed at by Curtin's Dog Oxen prepared against Attack 

 Strange Mashoona Custom We Part About the Baobab The species 

 of Lions Black-maned Tellow-maned Their Characters Maneless The 

 Lion of the Great Thirst Land North and South Africa. 



FIRST one place and then another where I had hoped 

 to discover at least a small quantity of water I found 

 dried up, the bottoms baked as hard as stone. The 

 last place I knew of, about eight miles farther on, 

 might also be in the same state. The question was 

 whether poor little Euby would stand the ordeal, for she 

 suffered much. Yet she has not evinced any symptom 

 of weakness, still it has struck me twice during the last 

 hour that a certain giving beneath the saddle spoke 

 plainly that there was a limit beyond which even the 

 very best and pluckiest specimens of horseflesh could 

 not go. However, of two evils choose the lesser, and it 

 appeared to me that to break down looking for water 

 was better than to give up and patiently wait for a 

 release from all our earthly troubles through thirst. 



Ehinoceros spoor was so abundant that I felt con- 

 vinced that water was near if I only knew where to look 

 for it ; but I was too weary, and my little mare too used 



