BULLOCKS ASSEGALED. 105 



next day to his waggon at Tchakani Pool — he thinks 

 about twenty miles. It was on the evening of the 

 third day he reached a hill, by moonlight, whence he 

 saw other hills he knew. Started before daybreak 

 and that night got the milk. He thinks he could 

 have gone another day without food or water. He 

 had nothing whatever between the coffee at starting 

 and the milk. He carried his gun, perspired pro- 

 fusely, and suffered much from cold at nights. He 

 experienced a difficulty in swallowing. 



" A letter from Mandy at Inyati to-day states 

 that he saw a crocodile there the other day, which 

 got hold of his dog and pursued himself in his bath- 

 ing hole. It was ten or twelve feet long, he says. . . . 

 Dancing in little parties going on all day ; the girls 

 very lively in their dance. Bought a goat for about 

 three quarters of a pound of beads. 



"January loth. — Very cloudy day, inclined to 

 rain. Went up to kraal, where slaughtering was 

 going on. I had heard nothing of it, but the num- 

 ber of bullocks slaughtered this year must have been 

 next to nothing compared with former years. I 

 saw a dozen or twenty down, or being assegaied. 

 The bullocks are driven together, one out ot the 

 number being intended for slaughter. The oppor- 

 tunity is watched for to hurl the assegai, which 

 sometimes remains in the ox, who runs some distance 

 before he falls, bleeding at the nostrils, and soon 

 dies. They are stabbed in the region of the heart 

 and lungs. The first thrust is often not successful, 

 as it is not easy to hit the victim in the right place 



