220 FLIGHT OF LOCUSTS. 



scarcely face them, and I was often nearly blinded by a great 

 brute coming into my eye with a flop. I did not practise 

 the same refined cruelty on this delinquent that a gentle- 

 man of South-African reputation told me he had one day 

 done when a locust flew into his eye. Although blinded 

 momentarily in one eye, he still kept the other on the 

 rascal, who sought escape by diving amongst the crowd on 

 the ground. After dismounting and capturing it, he passed 

 a large pin through its body, and placed it in his waistcoat- 

 pocket. Whenever the damaged eye smarted, he pulled 

 the locust out of his pocket, and passed the pin through it 

 in a fresh place : so hard-lived was this poor wretch, that I 

 was assured the eye became quite well before the locust died. 



Birds also frequently annoy the Kaffir gardens; and 

 these people's power of defence against them is so limited, 

 that it is absurd to see the importance they will sometimes 

 place upon their destruction. 



I once won the heart of an old Kaffir and all his wives, 

 by killing two birds that had persecuted him for a con- 

 siderable time. 



He came from a great distance to request my aid, arid 

 I rode out with him and shot two crows that had made a 

 regular joke of him for several weeks. These two birds 

 had established their quarters near his kraal, and were 

 going to build a nest in a large tree. The Kaffir would 

 soon have destroyed their eggs, but in the mean time the 

 birds took every opportunity of stealing any mealeas that 

 might be put out to dry, or bits of meat that might be 

 left in the sun, and were for a moment unwatched ; his 

 gardens, also, were examined occasionally for seed. When 



