78 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



Karroo plains, where they are pastured in vast 

 numbers. We also breed horses and mules, which 

 thrive well in these regions. 



At six o'clock each morning — earlier in the 

 summer — after Sally, our little Kaffir maid-of-all- 

 work, has brought to each of us, while in bed, the 

 matutinal cup of coffee, one of our number rises and 

 goes to the adjacent kraal to count the goats as they 

 issue forth in charge of their Kaffir herds to pasture 

 on the mountain veldt, N'quami, our groom, a long 

 lithe Kaffir from Galekaland, more commonly known 

 as John, has slaughtered at the back of the house 

 the goat which is each day sacrified for the needs of 

 our household ; and the kidneys, fry, and a chop or 

 two are grilled for breakfast. Honey, found in 

 abundance in the rocks around us, takes the place 

 of marmalade. Breakfast over, one or two of us 

 ride off to the broad shallow kloof, three miles 

 farther away in the mountains, where our horses and 

 mules are run, under the care of Tobias, our Dutch 

 foreman. Another of us busies himself marking 

 goats ; whilst a third takes on his back a dead kid — 

 well primed with strychnine pills — meaning to deposit 

 it in a small kloof across the valley for the benefit of 

 one of the numerous leopards which infest our farm. 

 This is the only method of keeping down these night 

 marauders, which do cruel execution on our flocks 

 and foals. Then attention must be given to the 

 little patch of alluvial land by the dry river-bed, 

 where we grow sufficient grain for our wants, and 

 odd jobs have to be done. A gun or rifle is usually 

 carried ; for game, feathered and furred, is plentiful, 

 and is ever a welcome change from the monotony of 

 goat-flesh. Meanwhile, Mrs. H., our kind hostess, 



