A Breath from the Veldt 133 



His wife hated Mashonaland ; she had been ill there one year, and half dead 

 with bad food and water another, and was now stumping up and down dis- 

 charging her pent-up feelings in the choicest Dutch Billingsgate. Hertina of 

 course did not wish to leave her beloved Jan, and the other girls would not 

 allow their oxen to budge, for their sister said it was a wicked country for 

 fever where we were going, and even if they did not die there, all the oxen 

 would. Tace and Hert were so lazy they did not wish to move another yard ; 

 they liked, too, the pleasant company of the Basadanotes and De Mervelles. 

 Piet was more or less neutral ; his inclination being to go on with us, though 

 he did not much care what happened so long as he got some shooting. The 

 " little rift within the lute " had been widening ever since we met the other 

 hunters, and now I saw that there was nothing for it but to hold a regular 

 palaver, which is always done when any subject of importance is to be discussed 

 in Dutch circles. I accordingly adjourned to their big fireplace, where Tante 

 served us all with her excellent coffee to put us in a good humour, and we 

 settled down to seriously discuss the situation. Immediately I had taken my 

 place I saw by the insolent manner of Tace and Hert that they fancied I was 

 in their power and could not proceed further, or in fact do anything without 

 Oom Roelef, whom they considered they had checkmated ; and once a 

 Dutchman of the downright boorish class fancies he has got the better of you, 

 there is no end to his arrogance and overbearing swagger. This naturally got 

 my back up, and I resolved to move on the next day without any of them, 

 rather than give in to such poor-spirited men.. Oom Roelef was remarkably 

 quiet, but rolled his great eyes about in a way which suggested that some one 

 was going to catch it pretty considerably by and by. After we had listened 

 to the protestations of the family, to promiscuous remarks of the other hunters, 

 and lastly, to Miss Boree's (aged twelve) reasons for the inability of her oxen 

 to trek, I got up and went away to my own waggon, telling Teenie to say to 

 Oom Roelef that under any circumstances I should move on towards the river 

 at sunrise the next day, and that as he had promised to come with me to 

 Mashonaland and show me the game, I trusted he would keep his word. 

 This had the desired effect. I knew that Oom had only to assert himself 

 properly, as he could do upon occasion, and things would go all right. As 

 his wife once said to me : " My man is too good-natured, and people humbug 

 him ; but once he is roused he is the devil." Whether he played the devil or 

 not that night at Moifontein I do not know, but about lo p.m. I heard angry 

 voices and sounds of heavy blows, followed by weeping and wailing, from 



