040 



EXPEDITION INTO 



ing- " Hold enoiig'li !" I stayed my hand from slang-liter. 

 Having* divested some of the slain of their brilliant parti- 

 coloured robes^ and packed the spolia on my horse^ I set out 

 to rejoin the wag-g-ons^ but ah ! how vainly did I seek for 

 them. Ag-ain and ag-ain I strained my eyes for the road^ and 

 cantered to and fro between the string* of frosted salt-pans 

 and the little hill, which, floating- in the sea of mirag-e that 

 environed me, seemed as if poised in the sky. The mono- 

 tony of the landscape baffled all my attempts at recog-nition, 

 and my search was utterly fruitless. Every feature of the 

 cone was precisely the same — the table mountains were 

 completely obscured by the vapour — and in the constant 

 recurrence of similar forms, I lost the points of the compass^ 

 and at last became totally bewildered. 



To retrace my steps over plains so trampled by innumer- 

 able herds was clearly impossible. At one moment as if in 

 mockery, a solitary quag-g-a, mag-nified ten thousand times by 

 the treacherous mirag-e, loomed like the white tilt of a wag-- 

 g-on 5 but my joy at the supposed discovery was invariably 

 followed by the bitterest disappointment. Ag-ain a g-roup of 

 pig-my Bushwomen, walking- unnoticed among' a herd of bles- 

 boks, and seen throug-h the same deceptive medium, per- 

 sonated our followers with the cattle. Alas ! these too fled 

 at my approach, and jabbered like baboons when I had over- 

 taken them. Several hours had thus passed in idle search. 

 Spent by fatig-ue and anxiety, my parched tong-ue rattling- 

 like a board ag-ainst the palate of my mouth, I wandered on 

 over flowery wastes, still leng-thening- as I advanced. Dry 

 tanks, surrounded by a g-arden of pinlvs and marig-olds, served 

 only to increase my suffering's, but neither fount, nor pool, 

 nor running stream, g-reeted my straining- g-aze. At leng-th 

 the refraction dissipating- with the declining- day, the three 

 t-able-topi)ed mountains became ag-ain visible in the horizon. 

 With the consoling- reflection that at all CAcnts I was now 



