52 CAPTURE OF A BUSHWOMAN. 



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 thelake 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 waggons, happened to spy a Bushwoman 

 running away in a bent position, in order to escape observa- 

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

 She thought herself captured, and began to deliver up 

 her poor little property, consisting of a few traps made 

 of cords ; but, when I explained that we only wanted water, 

 and would pay her if she led us to it, she consented to con- 

 duct us to a spring. It was then late in the afternoon, but 

 she walked briskly before our horses for eight miles, and 

 showed us the water of Nchokotsa. After leading us to 

 the water, she wished to go away home, if indeed she had 

 any — she had fled from a party of her countrymen, and 

 was now living far from all others with her husband — but 

 as it was now dark, we wished her to remain. As she 

 believed herself still a captive, we thought she might 

 slip away by night, so, in order that she should not go 

 away with the impression that we were dishonest, we gave 

 her a piece of meat and a good large bunch of beads ; at 

 the sight of the latter she burst into a merry laugh, and 

 remained without suspicion. 



At Nchokotsa we came upon the first of a great number 

 of salt-pans, covered with an efflorescence of lime, probably 

 the nitrate. A thick belt of mopane-trees (a Bauhinia) 

 hides this salt-pan, which is twenty miles in circumference, 

 entirely from the view of a person coming from the south- 

 east ; and, at the time the pan burst upon our view, 

 the setting sun was casting a beautiful blue haze over the 

 white incrustations, making the whole look exactly like 

 a lake. Oswell threw his hat up in the air at the sight, 

 and shouted out a huzza which made the poor Bushwoman 

 and the Bakwains think him mad. I was a little behind 

 him, and was as completely deceived by it as he ; but 

 as we had agreed to allow each other to behold the lake 



