A herd of koodoo came crashing by ; I know there was 

 a herd, but only the first and last will come to mind 

 the space between seems blurred. The clear impres- 

 sions are of the koodoo bull in front, with nose out- 

 thrust, eyes shut against the bush, zmd great horns laid 

 back upon the withers, as he swept along opening the 

 way for his herd ; and then, as they vanished, the big 

 ears, ewe neck, and tilting hindquarters of the last cow 

 between them nothing but a mass of moving grey ! 



The wildebeeste went by in Indian file, uniform in 

 shape, colour and horns ; and strangely uniform in 

 their mechanical action, lowered heads, and fiercely 

 determined rush. 



A rietbuck ram stopped close to us, looked back 

 wide-eyed and anxious, and whistled shrilly, and then 

 cantered on with head erect and white tail flapping ; 

 but its mate neither answered nor came by. A terri- 

 fied hare with its ears laid flat scuttled past within a 

 yard of Francis and did not seem to see him. Above 

 us scared birds swept or fluttered down wind ; while 

 others again came up swirling and swinging about, 

 darting boldly through the smoke to catch the insects 

 driven before the fire. 



But what comes back with the suggestion of in- 

 finitely pathetic helplessness is the picture of a beetle. 

 We stood on the edge of our burn, waiting for 

 the ground to cool, and at my feet a pair of tock- 

 tockie beetles, hump backed and bandy legged, came 

 toiling slowly and earnestly along ; they reached 

 the edge of our burn, touched the warm ash, 

 turned patiently aside to walk round it ! 



> 292 



