CHAPTER X. 

 AN UNLUCKY TRIP. 



One evening, when outspanned at "Rust de 

 Winter," on Eland's River, my Kaffir boy cam 

 running to tell me that a big snake had caught a 

 pallah (rooibok). I took my gun and found a 

 python with the horns of big ram sticking out 

 of his mouth. I shot him, and the boys staked the 

 python's tail to the ground and pulled the buck out. 

 He had not been long killed, but they would not eat 

 the buck as they said it was unlucky, that I should 

 not have shot the snake, but have let them peg him 

 to the ground while dormant, and they foretold 

 trouble on our trip. 



Two nights after that, I was dining with old 

 Mr. Kort Joachim Prinsloo, who was encamped close 

 to the " Gift Spruit " bolow " Kameel Poort." After 

 dinner the old man said I had better go over the 

 spruit to my wagon before it got too late, as the 

 lions had been killing several cattle lately. I went, 

 while my oxen were still grazing, and when I got 

 up the bank I saw an animal walking up the spruit 

 in the sand. I whistled, and my two splendid doga 

 came and started barking as soon as they saw, what 

 I then recognised as a lioness, as she ran into some 

 reeds. I cleared the spruit and reached the wagon 

 in less than no time, and started tying up the oxem 

 before they should smell the lions and stampede, 

 when finished, I wanted to go to help the dogs, who 

 were still barking near the reeds, but the boys begged 

 me not to go from the wagon as there would be 

 more lions than one. We made fires and at last 



