130 TALES OF A NOMAD. 



" Yes, it is delightful." 



" What luck have you had ? " 



Holding up three fingers of his hand, he replied : " I 

 have killed three, one was a warrior, one an old woman, 

 and the third a lad. I suppose we shall now go on and 

 harry the Zoutpansberg and Waterberg." 



" Certainly not ; we are not at war with them, we are 

 only fighting with the Basutos of Matshila." 



"The English general is a lion. I shall certainly come 

 again next season." 



" We are not going to do the same sort of thing next 

 season ; we only make war when we have a just griev- 

 ance." 



" Dear me, what a very curious people the English 

 are ! " 



Other things I saw and heard which to relate would 

 be a mere pandering to a morbid taste for the dreadful. 

 Suffice it to say, that where you are compelled to employ 

 savages as allies you cannot entirely prevent them from 

 acting as savages always do. 



Yet these same ruthless savages are in civil life hospit- 

 able, honest, kindly, and law abiding. The strange con- 

 tradictions in their character are merely the resultant 

 of their surroundings and of the conditions under which 

 their race has been evolved. 



The garrison of the fighting kopje had not yet sur- 

 rendered, so we put a strong picket on the kopje and 

 surrounded it with riflemen. Some of them made at- 

 tempts to escape at night, but were nearly all shot down. 

 The next day they surrendered. 



The day afterwards we received an order for one 

 squadron to go in pursuit of the king, who had escaped 

 from the town and had taken refuge in a stronghold 



