174 MATABELE LAND. 



and face, and gone on to the waggon -road (the son 

 followed the blood-spoor). He had put his gun in a 

 tree and hung up his powder-flask, and gone on the 

 road a hundred yards when he had dropped and died." 



The day after Van Rooyen's encounter with the 

 lion, Frank Oates, whilst out hunting, again visited 

 the carcass, and, kindling a fire, cooked some of the 

 meat. On this the boys who were with him, and 

 both his pointers, had a feast, and he tasted some of 

 it himself, which he found to be coarse in the grain 

 and not unlike quagga meat. 



Resuming the journey to the Zambesi later the 

 same afternoon, he now broke fresh ground, keeping 

 for a day or two in a northerly direction close to 

 the Ramakwebani, a really magnificent river when 

 viewed from the ground above, its broad sandy 

 bed stretching far away into the distance through 

 the veldt. The dry beds of a number of spruits, 

 all rising quite near the river, and suddenly becom- 

 ing large before falling into it, were crossed as he 

 proceeded. It is no wonder that South African 

 rivers, thus fed by so many tributaries along their 

 entire course, fill with such amazing rapidity directly 

 the rains fall, and swell into large streams almost 

 at their source. Next turning towards the north- 

 west, he presently struck across back towards the 

 Tati River, and joined the more direct road from 

 the settlement to the Zambesi, which here for some 

 distance keeps by the river's bank, the country now 

 assuming a broken rugged appearance — rough 

 craggy kopjes and small open park -like glades 



