DISCOVERY OF WATER. 37 



A fter exhausting all his eloquence in fruitless attempts 

 to persuade us to return, the under-chief, who headed the 

 party of Sekomi's messengers, inquired, "Who is taking 

 them?" Looking round, he exclaimed, with a face ex- 

 pressive of the most unfeigned disgust, "It is Kamotohi V' 

 Our guide belonged to Sekomi's tribe, but had fled to 

 Sechele ; as fugitives in this country are always well re- 

 ceived, and may even afterward visit the tribe from which 

 they had escaped, Eamotobi was in no danger, though doing 

 that which he knew to be directly opposed to the interests 

 of his own chief and tribe. 



For sixty or seventy miles beyond Serotli, one clump of 

 bushes and trees seemed exactly like another; but, as we 

 walked together this morning, Eamotobi remarked, "When 

 we come to that hollow we shall light upon the highway 

 of Sekomi; and beyond that again lies the river Mokoko;" 

 which, though we passed along it, I could not perceive to 

 be a river-bed at all. 



After breakfast, some of the men, who had gone forward 

 on a little path with some footprints of water-loving 

 animals upon it, returned with the joyful tidings of 

 "metse," water, exhibiting the mud on their knees in con- 

 firmation of the news being true. It does one's heart good 

 to see the thirsty oxen rush into a pool of delicious rain- 

 water, as this was. In they dash until the water is deep 

 enough to be nearly level with their throat, and then they 

 stand drawing slowly in the long, refreshing mouthfuls, 

 until their formerly collapsed sides distend as if they would 

 burst. So much do they imbibe, that a sudden jerk, when 

 they come out on the bank, makes some of the water run 

 out again from their mouths ; but, as they have been days 

 without food too, they very soon commence to graze, and 

 of grass there is always abundance everywhere. This 

 pool was called Mathuluana ; and thankful we were to have 

 obtained so welcome a supply of water. 



After giving the cattle a rest at this spot, we proceeded 

 down the dry bed of the river Mokoko. 



