262 EXPEDITION INTO 



tered three, and drove the residue to the summit of a high 

 hill, where they were found the following- morning. 



Having travelled until dark on the 8rd without being able 

 to discover any water, we halted in a wide plain under an 

 isolated hill, which, it will be seen, was destined shortly to 

 become the scene of sad disaster and anxiety. A party of 

 Bushwomen, who had their den among the rocks at its base, 

 presently arrived, bring-ing fuel and eatable wild roots for 

 barter. One of them, whose foot measured barely four 

 inches in length, was a most bewitching creature, and com- 

 pletely turned the heads of the Hottentots. Besides being- 

 far more elaborately embellished with red clay and orna- 

 ments of fat — and perhaps even more redolent of villanous 

 smells that any lady ^\'e had hitherto seen, this Venus 

 carried a jackal's tail by way of a pocket handkerchief, and 

 spoke the mellifluous Dutch language with surprising- 

 fluency. It appeared that she had eftected her escape from 

 a boor residing in the Sneuwbergen, whose slave she had 

 been from infanc}^ ; but we could elicit little information of 

 value, beyond the existence of a dirty pool about two miles 

 distant, whither the cattle were immediately driven. 



Since leaving the Cashan Mountains, one or two of our 

 oxen had been almost daily abandoned ; but including* Mutleey 

 the old cow, and a dwarf bull — neither of which royal gifts 

 could be worked in the teams — we were still the proprietors 

 of thirty-eight of all sorts. They had fasted the preceding- 

 night, and the plain being- very open, we left them to graze 

 in a verdant hollow, from which it did not appear probable 

 that they would stray. About midnight, however, the roar 

 of a lion being followed by a general rush towards the wag- 

 gons, Andries was appointed to keep watch j but spent with 

 fatigue, and possessing withal a most gentlemanly abhorrence 

 of trouble, he did not preserve his vigil long, and the conse- 

 quence was, that at daybreak not an ox was to be seen. This 



