WATER HIDDEN. 43 



the market of the world, and has proved a refuge to many 

 a fugitive tribe — to the Bakalahari first, and to the other 

 Bechuanas in turn — as their lands were overrun by the 

 tribe of true Caffres, called Matebele. The Bakwains, 

 the Bangwaketze, and the Bamangwato all fled thither ; 

 and the Matebele marauders, who came from the well- 

 watered east, perished by hundreds in their attempts to 

 follow them. One of the Bangwaketze chiefs, more wily 

 than the rest, sent false guides to lead them on a track 

 where, for hundreds of miles, not a drop of water could 

 be found, and they perished in consequence. Many Bak- 

 wains perished too. Their old men who could have told 

 us ancient stories perished in these nights. An intelligent 

 Mokwain related to me how the Bushmen effectually 

 baulked a party of his tribe which lighted on their village 

 in a state of burning thirst. Believing, as he said, that 

 nothing human could subsist without water, they 

 demanded some, but were coolly told by these Bushmen 

 that they had none, and never drank any. Expecting to 

 find them out, they resolved to watch them night and 

 day. They persevered for some days, thinking that at last 

 the water must come forth ; but notwithstanding their 

 watchfulness, kept alive by most tormenting thirst, the 

 Bakwains were compelled to exclaim, " Yak ! yak ! these 

 are not men ; let us go. ' ' Probably the Bushmen had been 

 subsisting on a store hidden under ground, which had 

 eluded the vigilance of their visitors. 



CHAPTER III. 



Such was the Desert which we were now preparing to cross, 

 — a region formerly of terror to the Bechuanas from the 

 numbers of serpents which infested it and fed on the 

 different kinds of mice, and from the intense thirst which 

 these people often endured when their water-vessels were 

 insufficient for the distances to be travelled over before 

 reaching the wells. 



Just before the arrival of my companions, a party of the 

 people of the lake came to Kolobeng, stating that they 



