SOUTH AFRICA FIFTY YEARS AGO 63 



be seen of skipping beasts ' that troubled me. The only animal 

 I really saw that night was a rhinoceros that, with head and 

 tail up and in a terrible fuss, crossed a few yards before me. 

 A sound in front, and I strained my eyes into the shadowy 

 darkness in advance ; the rustling of a leaf told of life to the 

 right or left ; and the snapping of a twig of possible death in 

 the rear. But I struggled on for an hour, I should think, 

 when, stooping to clear a low bough, four or five muskets fired 

 together within fifty yards told me I was at home again. I hope 

 I was thankful then ; I know I am now. Two of my Hottentot 

 servants and a batch of Kafirs had come some distance into 

 the bush in the hope of meeting me, and escorted me to 

 the fire in triumph. As I held my still only half-thawed hands 

 over it, the baulked roar of a disappointed lion rang through the 

 camp. He had not been heard before that night. ' He has 

 missed you, Tlaga, 1 by a little this time,' said my black friends. 

 ' Let him go back to his game.' They were right, for in the 

 morning we found his spoor on mine for a long way back. 

 Whether he had come with me from the water or I had 

 picked up a follower in the bush I never knew. My constantly 

 stopping and listening probably saved me, for a lion seldom 

 makes up his mind very suddenly to attack a man unless hard 

 pressed by hunger. He likes to know all about it first, and 

 my turning, and slow, jerky progress had probably roused his 

 suspicions. 



Two nights before this we had met with a sad misfortune. 

 The oxen were ' kraaled ' surrounded, that is, by a hedge of 

 thorn-trees, and bushes strong enough to keep them in and lions 

 out, we hoped a mode of defence we always adopted if there 

 was wood enough close to the outspan, or we intended staying 

 any length of time in the same place ; though occasionally, 

 when we only halted for the night and were distant from water, 

 and therefore likely to be free from lions, the oxen were instead 



1 To my face the Kafirs always called me ' Tlaga,' which, I believe, means 

 ' on the look-out,' wary, like game ; behind my back, I have been told, I was 

 called ' Bones,' from my leanness. 



