182 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



spirits speedily began a kind of intermittent chant, and 

 most of the rest by degrees joined in the occasional grunt 

 or hum that served as chorus. 



For four hours we travelled steadily, first through the 

 moonlight, and then through the reddening dawn. Jackals 

 shrieked, and the plains plover wailed and scolded as they 

 circled round us. When the sun was well up, we halted; 

 the desolate flats stretched far and wide on every side and 

 rose into lofty hills ahead of us. The porters received their 

 water and food, and lay down to sleep, some directly in the 

 open, others rigging little sun shelters under the scattering 

 thorn-bushes. The horses were fed, were given half a 

 pail of water apiece, and were turned loose to graze with 

 the oxen; this was the last time the oxen would feed freely, 

 unless there was rain; and this was to be our longest halt. 

 We had an excellent breakfast, like our supper the night 

 before, and then slept as well as we could. 



Noon came, and soon afterward we again started. The 

 country grew hilly, and brushy. It was too dry for much 

 game, but we saw a small herd of giraffe, which are in- 

 dependent of water. Now riding our horses, now leading 

 them, we travelled until nearly sunset, when we halted at 

 the foot of a steep divide, beyond which our course lay 

 across slopes that gradually fell to the stream for which 

 we were heading. Here the porters had all the food and 

 water they wished, and so did the horses; and, each with 

 a double span of oxen, the wagons were driven up the 

 slope, the weary cattle straining hard in the yokes. 



Black clouds had risen and thickened in the west, 

 boding rain. Three-fourths of our journey was over; and 

 it was safe to start the safari and then leave it to come on 

 by itself, while the ox wagons followed later. At nine, be- 

 fore the moon struggled above the hill-crests to our left, we 

 were off. Soon we passed the wagons, drawn up abreast, 

 a lantern high on a pole, while the tired oxen lay in their 

 yokes, attached to the trek tow. An hour afterward we 

 left the safari behind, and rode ahead, with only our saises 



