Bush Veld and other Treks and Adventure* 79 



this, a young Boer, who was riding from Duvenage's 

 farm to Schoemansdal to have his banns called, was 

 caught in daylight, not far from where I had my 

 experience. When he did not return, they went to 

 look for him, and found only his skull and portions of 

 his horse and the broken saddle. It seems incredible 

 that in the fifty years since then, the country has 

 been cleared of all game, lions included. 



A comical accident happened to one of my kaffirs 

 on " The Willows." I had shot some fat quaggas 

 out of a herd which came below the hill (to feed 

 the working kaffirs), and one quagga I sent to old 

 Rooibok, who was herding a lot of cattle on the 

 adjoining farm " Hazeldean." My brother Ted, a 

 couple of others, and myself, were playing whist in 

 the old Boer house, before the new homestead was 

 built, when we heard a loud report and yells of 

 anguish near the orchard " Rooibok Weh !" "Rooibok 

 Weh ! yoh, yoh, malajoh !" Piet du Preez, my farming 

 man, explained the situation. He had a patch of 

 eweet potatoes near the orchard, and had set a spring 

 gun to shoot porcupines which were eating them. 

 Rooibok could not resist the craving for sweet 

 potatoes to eat with his quagga meat, and had 

 come three miles from Hazeldean in the night, 

 and had commenced to dig some out when the 

 gun went off behind him, peppering him sorely and 

 sending him on his face, and he thought it was 

 "Molimo" (God) punishing him for not being 

 content with the quagga, so he shouted for mercy. 

 Next morning the other boys spread him, back up- 

 wards on a large round stone and extracted as much 

 of the shot as they could get at with a penknife, but 

 he could not sit down or get about, so I paid him off 

 and he went to his kraal. Some years afterwards 

 he turned up with twenty followers, introduced 



