4 8 MATABELE LAND. 



house had an air of comfort and some luxury about 

 it, owing to some handsome leopard -karosses on 

 couch and chairs. There was a picture, too, by 

 Baines, of Lee shooting three elephants. The horse 

 here represented, which I think cost him ^ioo/was 

 the making of him, he tells me. Lee was a Trans- 

 vaal Boer, but speaks English. He was about five 

 years hunting. I had supper with him and a long 

 chat afterwards. Garland, he says, lost seven un- 

 salted horses and had to send for two salted ones. 

 A good salted horse costs ^"ioo. Lee described 

 how his old favourite used to snuff when game was 

 near, and when it was elephant his manner was un- 

 mistakable. He has tried donkeys in the tsetse-fly 

 country, but the fly has always killed them. He says 

 all horses, with scarcely an exception, must have the 

 sickness, but he has known an exception. This, how- 

 ever, does not apply to stock bred of salted parents, 

 which often live and never have the sickness. This 

 is better, as the sickness breaks a horse down. 



" Lee has just sold twelve red oxen — Afrikanders, 

 with white faces — for ^"ioo, unwillingly. His other 

 oxen are all in the hunting veldt. He has, however, 

 let me have Smit's as far as Monyama's, with a boy 

 to bring them back. I think he calls it ten miles to 

 Monyama's, and from his (Lee's) house to the king's 

 fifty odd miles. He says he saw some eland to-day, 

 but game is not plentiful just here. However, it is 

 worse along the road to the king's, as kraals abound. 

 Lee does not wish to have kraals near him, and the 

 king does not permit any to be made in his neigh- 



