26 EXPEDITION INTO 



whatever this most beiiig'hted of countries can produce, when 

 ahnost every other commodity is rejected with disdain. 



The following" day, after passing* the residence of Piet 

 Van-der Merwe, 3- clept Dickwang*, or double-chin, — a sobri- 

 quet with which a lar^e wen on the throat has saddled him, 

 as a distinction from his neig-hbours of the same name — we 

 cleared the Sneuwberg'en, and arrived at a deserted farm, 

 named Dassies-fontein. Here we were struck with the sig-ht 

 of an old Kafir, smoking- dacca, or the narcotic wild hemp, 

 in which the natives g-reatly delig'ht. Seated at the door of 

 a miserable hovel, a squalid picture of poverty, the decrepit 

 wretch was inhaling" the pernicious drug" throug"h water from 

 a bullock's horn. Volumes of smoke were forced into his 

 stomach by draug"hts of water, and the result was a violent 

 fit of coug"hing", attended by raving- delirium. We actually 

 saw him throw off his slender apparel, and rush forth into 

 the plain like a wild beast or a maniac fi*om Bedlam. 



At noon on the 5th the thermometer stood at 32°, the snow 

 falling" in quantities during" the whole of the day. We how- 

 ever travelled twenty-five miles and reached Vog"el Valley^ 

 where, the following- morning", the whole of the brooks were 

 frozen over with ice a quarter of an inch thick, and the manes 

 of the horses, as well as the herbag"e around, were decorated 

 with icicles. The g-lass at 7 A. m. had sunk to 18", yet the 

 cold to the feeling was neither intense nor disag-reeable. 

 Here, for the first time, we saw larg*e troops of those 

 eccentric animals the Gnoos,* three of which we killed^ 

 having hemmed a herd into a valle}'-, and oblig"ed them to 

 run the gauntlet. 



Of all quadrupeds, the g"noo is probably the most awkward 

 and grotesque. Nature doubtless formed him in one of her 

 freaks, and it is scarcely possible to contemplate his ung*ainly 



* Catohlepas Gnoo. 



