i66 



A Breath from the Veldt 



to be got rid of anyhow as civilisation advanfces. In about five minutes the 

 groans and screams got fainter and fainter, and v^^e concluded that we should 

 find the hyasna dead next morning by the water. But ndt a bit of it ! Nature 

 had for the third time come to his assistance : he got rid of his poison without 

 drinking a drop of water, and for anything I know, he is still alive. 



The following morning, after many farewells and good wishes from Oom 

 Roelef 's family, we left Gong for the east ; and glad I was to get away. At 

 parting the old lady embraced me warmly, and went so far as to call me her 

 " dear Jan," from which it will be gathered that we had been getting on rather 

 well of late. I could not help smiling at the earnest way in which she 

 confided her " man " to my care, as if I had to look after him instead of his 

 seeing that I did not get lost — really the chief danger in South Africa. I 

 liked the old body very much, as she was always honest and kind to' me, and 

 it was only when things went a bit wrong that she lapsed into the temporary 

 indulgence of Dutch Billingsgate. Oom, I could see, was rather' uneasy at 

 leaving them this time unprotected, as they would be for a few days till Petrus 

 and Hert returned, the more so as amongst the natives the rumours about the 

 Matabele were taking a somewhat serious tone ; but Frau Van Staden showed 

 herself as plucky as other Dutch women who on thousands of occasions have 

 bravely followed the fortunes of their husbands through the troublous times of 

 the past one hundred years in South Africa. Fearful stories one hears round 

 Dutch camp fires of the sufferings these brave women had to undergo, of 

 which the big Lake Ngami trek is a good instance. One cannot quite agree 

 with the contemptuous aspersions that are cast by many on Dutch character and 

 Dutch courage ; for amongst these people, particularly the women, there has 

 always been that indomitable spirit of self-reliance which, whatever their other 

 failings may be, calls for the admiration of the world. 



t>/' //'"I . ' _"V> ■ ' ""«i'\'\\nl 



GAME SLEDGE FOR STANDING CAMP 



