lay there it was impossible to move the waggon, and 

 there was no way for the others to pass it ; the second, 

 that the ox was free, strong and perfectly well, and all 

 he had to do was to get up and walk. 



The drivers from the other waggons came up to 

 lend a hand and clear the way so that they might get 

 on ; sometimes three were at it together with their 

 double whips ; and, before they could be stopped, sticks 

 and stones were used to hammer the animal on the head 

 and horns, along the spine, on the hocks and shins, 

 and wherever he was supposed to have feeling ; then 

 he was tied by the horns to the trek-chain, so that 

 the span would drag him bodily ; but not once did 

 he make the smallest effort to rise. The road was 

 merely a gutter scoured out by the floods and it was 

 not possible either to drag the animal up the steep 

 sides or to leave him and go on the waggon would 

 have had to pass over him. And all this time he 

 was outspanned and free to go ; but would not stir. 



Then they did the kaffir trick doubled the tail 

 and bit it : very few bullocks will stand that, but 

 Bantom never winced. Then they took their clasp 

 knives and used them as spurs not stabbing to do 

 real injury, but pricking enough to draw blood in the 

 fleshy parts, where it would be most felt : he twitched 

 to the pricks but nothing more. Then they made a 

 fire close behind him, and as the wood blazed up, 

 the heat seemed unendurable ; the smell of singed 

 hair was strong, and the flames, not a foot away, seemed 

 to roast the flesh, and one of the drivers took a brand 

 and pressed the glowing red coal against the inside 

 of the hams ; but, beyond a vicious kick at the fire, 

 237 



