76 Recollections of Adventures 



At Pienaars River some wagons of mine left 

 us, and went on to Zoutpansberg and my dogs 

 followed them, which we did not notice for some 

 time. We could not be in the bush without a dog 

 to warn us of the lions at night; so after much 

 persuasion I got old George Scheepers, (nicknamed 

 44 Proppe " from having a plug in his nose), to lend 

 us one for the trip. Old George was full of praise 

 of the great ugly grey brute, said he would never 

 forgive me if I lost him. We had some fun out of 

 him; he had a good appetite, but was the most 

 arrant coward possible. When the hyenas came 

 about the wagon at night, he crouched among the 

 kaffirs, whining with fear. One afternoon I shot a 

 giraffe and the boys were skinning it, the dog was 

 smelling around, when a kaffir stuck a knife into 

 the immense paunch (distended with gas) ; the 

 explosion was out of all proportion to the event, the 

 dog gave one howl, bolted for the veld. Looking 

 round to see if the terror was following, he knocked 

 against a stump and rolled over when he recovered, 

 he went off as hard as ever, until out of sight, that 

 was the last seen of old George Scheeper's " beef 

 hound." We were in a fright as the old fellow was 

 notoriously passionate, and we did not know how 

 we could explain it away. When we got there I 

 told old Scheepers the whole story of the dog's 

 doings, in a ludicrous way. The old fellow laughed 

 immoderately, when he suddenly asked "where is 

 he now " and I said to the best of my belief he was 

 still going strong in an easterly direction ! so after 

 laughing so much he could not well get angry, a 

 44 sopje " and a few pounds of coffee, tea and sugar 

 to the old " tanta " cemented our friendly relations. 



Old Jacobus Erasmus who lived at "Onderste- 

 poort," adjoining the Pyramids, near Pretoria had a 



