HUNGER THE BEST SAUCE. 197 



proper value, I determined to inspect the place and 

 judge for myself; for I generally found that the igno- 

 rant or indolent reported that there was nothing in a 

 country in which a sportsman would find plenty. I 

 started across the Umganie at peep of day, and made a 

 journey of nearly forty miles, when I came up with my 

 Kaffirs. They had been joined by my old friend Matuan, 

 who told me that he was going in the same direction to 

 buy cattle, he having obtained some money by the sale of 

 Indian corn, which he grew in great quantities. I had a 

 small tent amongst the packs on my ox, just big enough 

 to crawl into; it was about seven feet long and three 

 high, and made a comfortable little kennel. I noticed 

 a Dutchman's house about a mile off; but as I had every- 

 thing I wanted, and the night was fine and moonlight, I 

 preferred camping under the trees where I then was. We 

 lighted a fire and sat round it. A tin mug full of brandy- 

 and-water being served out to my black companions, they 

 became very talkative. Inyovu, who was armed with one 

 of my guns, had managed to shoot a red bush-buck on 

 the journey, and we were busy lodging the venison in our 

 hungry maws. The appetite one gets at this out-of-door 

 work is perfectly wonderful ; being in the open air all day 

 and all night, I suppose, causes a man to become very 

 much, in habit, like some of the four-footed carnivora. 

 In the eating way there is no doubt about it ; the meat 

 disappears in heaps ; enough to feed an Irish family, here 

 only serves as a meal for one. Scarcely is it finished, 

 when an infallible appetite is again crying out for a 

 supply. I had, unfortunately, forgotten my plates 



