134 A MEDLEY OF SPOET 



and desolate -looking enough. To north, south, east and 

 west rolled away mile after mile of perfectly level plain, 

 a low range of kopjes, a patch of bush, a few stunted 

 acacia and wait-a-bit trees, and a small pan of reed- 

 fringed water, these being the only objects to break the 

 wearying monotony of the scene. High overhead were to 

 be seen a few dark specks wheeling in graceful gyrations 

 in the cloudless heavens. They were aasvogels (Egyptian 

 vultures), those loathsome but useful scavengers of the 

 veldt which are ever on the qui vive for dying things and 

 carrion. The great birds' roosting-place was on a spur 

 of the kopje that towered above our camping-place. As 

 I was throwing off my pyjamas preparatory to taking a 

 splash in the cool water of the spruit, a painted snipe 

 rose within a yard of me, and away up the creek he flew, 

 uttering his strange call of alarm. Greatly refreshed by 

 my improvised " tub," I returned to the outspan, to find 



de V haranguing the half-dozen or so Kaffirs, who 



accompanied our little expedition, regarding the manner 

 in which they were to beat for us. After a somewhat 

 frugal breakfast the guns were taken from the waggon, 

 and away we started to wage war against anything 

 wearing feather or fur worthy a cartridge. " We 



had better work towards the pan," said de V , 



as he put a couple of No. 5 shot cartridges into the 

 chambers of his 12 -bore, adding, " Will you take the 

 spruit or shall I ? " Now, having flushed the painted 

 snipe from the little waterway in question during my 

 matutinal ablutions, and making a shrewd guess that I 



