16 SOUTH-AFRICAN TRAVELLING. 



which the team pulls the waggon is then stretched, and 

 the driver, whirling his gigantic whip round his victims, 

 and with a shrill yell that a demon might utter, shouts, 

 "Trek! Trek! Achterman ! Roeberg!" (the names of 

 two oxen) "Trek ye!" 



The long whip is then brought down with a neat flip on 

 the flank of some refractory animal who is hanging back, 

 and out of whose hide a strip of several inches in length 

 is thus taken. 



A shout at Englishman generally so named from being 

 the most obstinate in the team Zwartland, Wit Kop, 

 &c., is followed by a steady pull all together, and the 

 waggon moves off. When the driver has flogged a few 

 more of the oxen to let off" his superfluous anger, he 

 mounts on the waggon-box, and exchanges his long whip 

 for a short strip of seacow-hide, called the " achter 

 sjambok," with which he touches up occasionally the two 

 wheelers. Lighting his pipe, he then complacently views 

 the performance of his stud through its balmy atmo- 

 sphere. Should there be an ox so obstinate as to refuse 

 to move on, or wish to lie down, &c., who can paint the 

 refined pleasure this same Hottentot driver feels in 

 thrashing the obstinacy out of the animal, or how entire 

 is his satisfaction as he kicks the poor brute in the 

 stomach, and raps him over the nose with the yokes-key, 

 or twists his tail in a knot, and then tears it with his 

 teeth. Martin's Act is a dead letter in Africa. 



A few days in Graham's Town were quite enough to 

 satisfy my curiosity ; in this part of the world, the sooner 

 one gets beyond the half-civilization the better. 



