50 DAYS AND NIGHTS BY THE DESERT. 



the eastward, which gradually shut up the face 

 of the heavens, causing the surroundings to be 

 involved in inky darkness. The wind now began 

 to rise in oft-repeated fitful gusts, driving with it 

 sheets of penetrating rain that made even the 

 interior of my waggon far from comfortable. 



It might have been eight o'clock or thereabouts, 

 when my Bechuana hunter reported to me that the 

 bullocks were exceedingly uneasy in their kraal, 

 adding further, "Baas! there are lions about, and, 

 as the fence round the bullocks is not strong, I think 

 you had better tie them up to their yokes." Advice 

 from such a source was not to be disregarded, for 

 this man had spent all his life among the wild beasts 

 of interior Africa, and knew their habits and haunts 

 as well as we do those of any of our domestic 

 animals. Thus, after much trouble, and with the 

 assistance of my lanterns, the cattle were removed 

 from the kraal and made fast to their respective 

 yokes, while the end of the treck-tow furthest from 

 the waggon was firmly secured to a tree by the aid 

 of a green rheim, the brake on the hind wheels being 

 firmly jammed down. Having taken these pre- 

 cautions, the hunter bade me good night, and turned 

 in among his companions under my desert house. 



The poet says, " coming events cast their shadows 

 before." Some feeling of this kind must have 

 actuated me, for I had an intuitive perception that, 

 before daybreak made its appearance, some mis- 



