HOW WE FARED. 223 



By-and-by the silence of the veldt is further broken 

 by the unaccustomed sound of fireworks, and of loud 

 cheers for the Queen from the stout lungs of her lieges 

 beneath the Southern Cross; then come some capital 

 theatricals and a dance, the latter prolonged a good way 

 into the small hours of the morning. There are no 

 better dancers anywhere than the Cape colonists ; they 

 are of course passionately fond of the art in which 

 they so much excel ; and thus, when a large and merry 

 party have collected not without considerable diffi- 

 culties, and at the cost of the longest and roughest of 

 journeys they naturally like to keep it up as long as 

 possible, and it is by no means an uncommon thing on 

 these occasions for people not to go to bed at all, but 

 for the morning sun, peeping in under the vines of the 

 verandah, to find the dance still in full swing. 



The Cape negroes, too, are all born dancers ; and it 

 needs but a few notes scraped on a fiddle or wheezed 

 on an asthmatic accordeon to set a whole company of 

 even the roughest and most uncouth Hottentots waltz- 

 ing in perfect time, and in a quiet and almost graceful 

 manner, strangely out of keeping with their ungainly 

 forms. 



Rarest among the antelopes is the klipspringer,* 

 which is called the chamois of South Africa, and which, 

 both in appearance and habits, closely resembles the 

 Alpine animal. Its flesh, which is short and dark, with 

 a flavour very like that of duck, is by far the best of 

 all the venison ; and its pretty coat is a marvel of soft- 

 * Oreotragus saltatrix. 



