

OH! GEORDIE BREWD A PECK 0' MAUT." 425 



competent driver to guide me over this route, a distance 

 I should think of over one hundred and twenty miles, 

 every yard of which has loose sand inches over the felloes 

 of the wheels, and at this season of the year probably 

 only one drinking-place to he found over the whole 

 course. 



While halting here I was thrown a great deal among 

 the traders, and whatever that class may be in other 

 parts of Africa, I can say for one and all of them at 

 Soshong that I considered they honoured me by their 

 society. One story I heard in Soshong, at the time and 

 even now I think so ludicrous, that I will relate it. 



Geordie a well-known character in Soshong a 

 Highlander by birth, had a most unquestionable love 

 for ardent spirits ; not that this is peculiar in itself, for 

 I have known a few Scotchmen who loved whiskey, and 

 when whiskey was not forthcoming, who condescended 

 to drink brandy, even rum, and, at a pinch, would 

 not hesitate to have a rnutchkin of gin. Now 

 Greordie had travelled, and his ideas in consequence 

 became enlarged; so that when gin could not be 

 obtained decent man ! he made no complaint, but 

 took to eau-de-cologne. But, as in Soshong the 

 supply of this was not great, and he saw that his 

 libations were limited in supply, he, like a wise man, 

 and one gifted with forethought, began to consider how 

 the want was to be supplied. Day after day he studied 

 this, and at length he thought happy thought! 

 " Make it myself/' So he got a Kaffir pot, and built 

 it in over an oven, had a condenser made, and for a 

 worm substituted an old gun-barrel. Kaffir corn was 

 the grain he first employed his ingenuity upon. The 

 quantity was small, and the results commensurate. 



