CHAP, v.] EEACH OTJIRONJUBA. 153 



creatures on account of the thorns. Flogging is of 

 little or no use ; the animal is essentially perverse 

 and vicious, and calls for almost superhuman patience. 

 From eleven a.m., till night-fall, we were labouring 

 through the thorns, that threatened soon to become 

 impervious. Our clothes and hands were sadly torn ; 

 but still we pushed on steadily. Not a blade of grass 

 was to be seen ; and when we outspanned, a pitch dark 

 night had set in ; the oxen were roaming about, — we 

 could hardly see them in the thick cover. When the 

 morning broke, a few oxen remained, and the rest 

 were gone. Away went half the men, without any 

 breakfast, running a steady pace, for we feared the 

 oxen might get back even to Kahikene's werft. They 

 were overtaken beyond the vley, as they were walking 

 steadily back. In the meantime I had gone on to see 

 how far we were from the stream Otjironjuba, our next 

 watering-place. To my delight, I found it close by, 

 only an hour and a haK off, full of running water, and 

 like a trout-stream, with meadows of grass about it. 

 It came out from a cliff of Omuvereoom. 



In the evening we brought the waggons up, and 

 encamped beside it, about two miles from the hill. 

 Here we staid two days, in happy idleness, climbing 

 the hill, bathing, shooting francolines, and having a 

 good clothes-washing. 



I must here make a digression on the subject of 

 soap, an article that we had to make for ourselves, as 

 I found that I had not brought nearly enough from 

 Cape Town. This is one instance out of a vast 

 number in which the missionary or the traveller is 



H 3 



