40 MATABELE LAND. 
" A ' salted,' or seasoned, horse is worth a great 
deal, as there is a sickness in the bush which is 
generally fatal to horses which are not 'salted.' It 
commences when the rains begin to fall. I much 
regretted losing my little horse. I was told, when 
I got him, he was salted, but he died after a few 
hours' illness. There is no cure known for it. He 
was looking beautiful ; his coat shone like satin, and 
he was getting quite fat with the young grass and 
some corn which I got for him at Mungwato. The 
oxen are thriving tremendously, and, since the grass 
has grown, from wretched skeletons they have be- 
come regular Tichbornes. 
" I shall write to you again from Maritzburg, if 
there is a ship sailing before I go, for I expect I 
shall have to stay a fortnight or three weeks there, 
to sell the waggon, oxen, etc. ... I mean to trek 
to-night when the moon gets up. We get into 
the high veldt now, where there is no bush. 
My waggon looks very seedy, the cover torn in 
many places by mimosa bushes, and the paint worn 
off. It is infested with beetles, and occasionally a 
lizard or scorpion is detected. Ants, too, occasion- 
ally pay me visits, to which I greatly object, as they 
bite uncommonly hard in this country. At night, if 
you are outspanned near water and have a lanthorn 
in the waggon, the candle is put out by numberless 
little beetles which creep in ; and the frogs literally 
yell all night long. It is very pretty to see the fire- 
flies." 
On January 2d, as already stated, W. E. Oates 
