174 MATABELE LAND. 
buffalo wallow, used his pannikin to wash his hands 
and face, and gone on to the waggon-road (the son 
followed the blood spoor). He had put his gun in a 
tree, and hung up his powder-flask, and gone on the 
road a hundred yards when he had dropped and died." 
The day after Van Roozen's encounter with the 
lion, Frank Oates, whilst out hunting, again visited 
the carcass, and, kindling a fire, cooked some of the 
meat. On this the boys who were with him, and 
both his pointers, had a feast, and he tasted some of 
it himself, which he found to be coarse in the grain, 
and not unlike quagga meat. 
Resuming his journey to the Zambesi later the 
same afternoon, he now broke fresh ground, keeping 
for a day or two in a northerly direction close to 
the Ramaqueban, a really magnificent river when 
viewed from the ground above, its broad sandy 
bed stretching far away into the distance through 
the veldt. The dry beds of a number of spruits, 
all rising quite near the river, and suddenly becom- 
ing large before falling into it, were crossed as he 
proceeded. It is no wonder that South African 
rivers, thus fed by so many tributaries along their 
entire course, fill with such amazing rapidity directly 
the rains fall, and swell into large streams almost 
at their source. Next turning towards the north- 
west, he presently struck across back towards the 
Tati River, and joined the more direct road from 
the settlement to the Zambesi, which here for some 
distance kept up the river's bank, the country now 
assuming that broken rugged appearance — here with 
