142 A Breath from the Veldt 



something happening to them, and their spirits rose to the highest summit 

 of good-nature that they ever reached— which, by the way, was not very 

 lofty. After an elephantine fashion, they made themselves as agreeable as 

 possible, and one of them even attempted a joke that made me feel sorry for 

 him. As I had never cherished any ill-will against therri, but only on occasion 

 felt exasperated at their laziness and ignorance, I could forgive them everything 

 else but that. 



Three o'clock the same day brought us to the M'zingwani River ; and 

 here Spotty, the strongest of my ponies, showed undoubted signs of horse- 

 sickness. Providence, however, was very kind both to Spotty and myself, for 

 after being taken care of for three weeks he quite recovered, and turned out 

 a genuine salted horse. After a good meal of klipbuck and tea we all went 

 for a hunt, and as usual saw nothing but spoor. Tace, however, was fortunate 

 enough to kill a young koodoo bull. He and Hert, I notice, are very jealous 

 of each other, and sit and sulk like a couple of big babies when any question 

 of their respective superiority as hunters comes up. They are also both 

 rather amusing — when they least intend to be — essaying to give Piet and me 

 lessons in venery, to which we listen respectfully while quietly laughing in 

 our sleeves. 



In the evening a lot of thin-legged, hungry -looking wretches of some 

 coloured mongrel tribe came and brought some delicious melons, which were 

 especially welcome, as well as some milk. One of them had an old Brown 

 Bess, with "V.R. Tower, 1836" engraved on it. I had just finished making 

 a sketch of him that I rather fancied, when the scoundrel caught sight of 

 what I was doing and picked up his blunderbuss, assegais, etc., and bolted. 



On the M'zingwani are many beautiful and interesting birds. There we 

 see for the first time the magnificent white-headed screaming eagle. These 

 splendid creatures are frequently to be seen soaring in great circles about the 

 pools in South African streams containing fish. The sun shines brilliantly on 

 the dazzling whiteness of their heads, necks, and tails, and gives them a 

 thoroughly noble appearance. In all their habits and ways, as far as I could 

 observe, they most closely resemble the white -tailed sea eagle, or erne of 

 Europe, but they are somewhat more slightly built and get on the wing in 

 less clumsy fashion. Their mode of fishing is similar, as I had one morning 

 a fine opportunity for seeing when one of them pounced on a large " barber " ^ 

 at a pool by the Bubye. The eagle settled on a dead branch overhanging 



^ The Silurus. 



