MESSAGE FROM SEKOMI. 67 



closely that of a turkey-cock. He will bite, if an animal is run- 

 ning away ; but if the animal stand still, so does he. Seventeen 

 of our draught oxen ran away, and in their flight went right into 

 the hands of Sekomi, whom, from his being unfriendly to our 

 success, we had no particular wish to see. Cattle-stealing, such 

 as in the circumstances might have occurred in Caffraria, is here 

 unknown ; so Sekomi sent back our oxen, and a message strong- 

 ly dissuading us against attempting the Desert. "Where are 

 you going ? You will be killed by the sun and thirst, and then 

 all the white men will blame me for not saving you." This was 

 backed by a private message from his mother. " Why do you 

 pass me? I always made the people collect to hear the word 

 that you have got. What guilt have I, that you pass without 

 looking at me?" We replied by assuring the messengers that 

 the white men would attribute our deaths to our own stupidity 

 and " hard-headedness" (tlogo, e thata), "as we did not intend to 

 allow our companions and guides to return till they had put us 

 into our graves." We sent a handsome present to Sekomi, and 

 a promise that, if he allowed the Bakalahari to keep the wells 

 open for us, we would repeat the gift on our return. 



After exhausting all his eloquence in fruitless attempts to per- 

 suade us to return, the under-chief, who headed the party of 

 Sekomi's messengers, inquired, " Who is taking them ?" Look- 

 ing round, he exclaimed, with a face expressive of the most un- 

 feigned disgust, "It is Ramotobi!" Our guide belonged to Se- 

 komi's tribe, but had fled to Sechele ; as fugitives in this country 

 are always well received, and may even afterward visit the tribe 

 from which they had escaped, Ramotobi was in no danger, though 

 doing that which he knew to be directly opposed to the interests 

 of his own chief and tribe. 



All around Scroti the country is perfectly flat, and composed 

 of soft white sand. There is a peculiar glare of bright sunlight 

 from a cloudless sky over the whole scene; and one clump of 

 trees and bushes, with open spaces between, looks so exactly like 

 another, that if you leave the wells, and walk a quarter of a mile 

 in any direction, it is difficult to return. Oswell and Murray 

 went out on one occasion to get an eland, and were accompanied 

 by one of the Bakalahari. The perfect sameness of the country 

 caused even this son of the Desert to lose his way ; a most 



