420 EXCUSE FOR EBIN IZAAK. 



inquiries, and the interest he manifested in Lieut. 

 Barker. The man to whom I had given the first 

 three dollars followed us into the hut, and I then 

 found that he was the son of the old chief. 



It had not heen deemed politic to introduce me 

 to the latter hy reason of the trip to the kraal, 

 which would have been necessary, and was con- 

 sidered unsafe. It had, therefore, been arranged 

 that any present I had to give should be received 

 by the son, who was to personify his father, and 

 as the motive seemed to have been purely out of 

 consideration for me, I easily excused the hoax. 

 Ebin Izaak thinking, as I had been cheated so 

 often, that unless I saw the individual himself I 

 should withhold the present, had concealed the 

 truth, and with a few bold assertions, had removed, 

 in a great measure, my doubts naturally excited 

 by seeing Durtee Ohmed possessing two eyes instead 

 of one, as I had expected. 



It was just milking time when we arrived at the 

 kraal. Girls standing up to their knees in sheep 

 and goats, caught each the one she intended to 

 operate upon, and placing a hind leg between her 

 knees, so held the animal fast. In their left hands 

 they held baskets of the usual closely-woven mid 

 rib of the palm-leaf, which they soon filled with 

 rich and frothy milk. 



Ohmed Medina and I were pressed to drink; 

 and the old man turning over on the mat upon 

 which he lay, reached from behind him a very 



