A Breath from the Veldt 



277 



to give him a share of the plunder, which I need hardly say is always done by 

 the natives. 



One day as we were by the Lundi Mountains I saw a Shangan boy of about 

 twelve years of age following a honey-guide ; and a very pretty sight it was. 

 The boy trotted along before us while keeping up a sort of monotonous chant 

 — an improvised eulogy, as I learnt from Office — in which he warbled sweet 

 praise and encouragement to the little bird as it fled before him. He 

 blessed the whole of the honey-guide's relations and then the bird itself, 

 and hoped he would show him a nice nest where the honey was good and 



V 



USUAL ATTITUDE OF A LION ROARING IN A STANDING POSITION 



sweet, and where no water had got in to spoil the contents. In the small 

 sketch I give of the boy running after the bird, the dotted line is intended to 

 indicate the line of flight and the resting-places of the honey-guide. 



Our first days on coming back to the river were the hardest I ever spent. 

 Van Staden and I determined to go as far as we could down the stream into the 

 " fly," and prospect for the herd of buffaloes. We started about an hour before 

 daybreak, and walked and rode alternately, with only one pony between us, till 

 eleven o'clock at night. About five miles below the Matexe Mountains the 

 river was exceedingly beautiful, but not so the tsetse flies, several of which we 

 caught on Brenke's quarters. On the way some small troops of pallah (all very 

 tame) crossed our path, and I shot one, missing two others that I ought to 



