404 LAEGE GAME. chap. viii. 



rally found that their strongholds, the fallow fields, had 

 been divided into small squares round which narrow 

 paths had been chopped, and that all hands had for that 

 day been taken away from their other employments, 

 while there was generally a contingent of Kaffirs from the 

 nearest kraals on the look-out for the bounty offered. 



Everybody, European or native, would be armed with 

 spears, for besides the little chance there was of getting a 

 shot, and the danger of shooting a man or a dog, the risk 

 of firing the cane, especially as people generally used paper 

 instead of wads, was sufficient to prevent guns being used. 

 The plot would then be surrounded, a line of men with 

 poised spears standing in each of the cut pathways, and 

 the dogs would be turned in. My little terrier used to 

 immediately disappear under the grass, from which he 

 would not again emerge until wearied out, though his 

 shrill yelp could continually be heard, and before long he 

 would force the cane-rat out, while the big dogs would 

 dart about making pounces at places where the scent was 

 strong, though, except by the noise and confusion they 

 caused, they in no way aided in making the unwilling 

 animal break cover. When at last it did so, it was as 

 often as not only to be missed by the nearest spearman, 

 and to take refuge in the next patch, where the operation 

 had to be repeated. In this way a dozen or more were 

 often killed, but they were never more than thinned, and 

 a fallow cane-field was at all times a certain find. 



Better fun was to be had in the autumn after the first 

 grass-fires had taken place, and large patches were still left 

 unconsumed near the native maize-gardens. The tangle 

 was less thick, and the numerous open spaces gave a 

 better chance of taking aim, besides sometimes enabling 



