Chap. III. MESSAGE FROM SEKOMI. 57 



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

 running away ; but if the animal stand still, so does he. Seven- 

 teen 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 

 strongly 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 ? " Looking 

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

 feigned disgust, "It is Eamotobi ! " Our guide belonged to 

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

 country are always well received, and may even afterwards visit 

 the tribe from which they have 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. 



All around Serotli 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 



