A Faithful Savage. 



303 



the one great object with everyone m the country 

 Avas to find an old working, as it was supposed 

 that the ancient miners Avere unable to work at 

 any depth, or to deal with quartz of great hard- 

 ness. This theory is probably erroneous. The 

 ancient miners in all likelihood knew more about 

 their business than tliev are credited with knowing, 



Tiriki. 



and the abandonment by them of reefs where old 

 workinas are now found was due less to their 

 Avant of skill or knowledge than to the fact that 

 they had worked out the best of the ore. 



On the morning of the 30th October I con- 

 tinued my journey south. " Tiriki," the ftiithful 

 savage about whom I wrote in a former chapter, 

 now departed, the kraal of his tribe being near. 

 He was as good a specimen of the savage as could 



