CAPTURE OF A BUSHWOMAN. 71 



returned with the joyful tidings of " metse," water, exhibiting the 

 mud on their knees in confirmation 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 com- 

 mence to graze, and of grass there is always abundance every 

 where. This pool was called Mathuluani ; 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. The name refers to the water- 

 bearing stratum before alluded to ; and in this ancient bed it bears 

 enough of water to admit of permanent wells in several parts of it. 

 We had now the assurance from Ramotobi that we should suffer 

 no more from thirst. Twice we found rain-water in the Mokoko 

 before we reached Mokokonyani, where the water, generally below 

 ground elsewhere, comes to the surface in a bed of tufa. The ad- 

 jacent country is all covered with low, thorny scrub, with grass, 

 and here and there clumps of the " wait-a-bit thorn," or Acacia 

 detinens. At Lotlakani (a little reed), another spring three miles 

 farther down, we met with the first Palmyra trees which we had 

 seen in South Africa ; they were twenty-six in number. 



The ancient Mokoko must have been joined by other rivers 

 below this, for it becomes very broad, and spreads out into a large 

 lake, of which the lake we were now in search of formed but a 

 very small part. We observed that, wherever an ant-eater had 

 made his hole, shells were thrown out with the earth, identical 

 with those now alive in the lake. 



When we left the Mokoko, Ramotobi seemed, for the first time, 

 to be at a loss as to which direction to take. He had passed only 

 once away to the west of the Mokoko, the scenes of his boyhood. 

 Mr. Oswell, while riding in front of the wagons, happened to spy 

 a Bushwoman running away in a bent position, in order to escape 

 observation. Thinking it to be a lion, he galloped up to her. 

 She thought herself captured, and began to deliver up her poor 



