142 THE INQUISITIVE HOST. 



inquiries being duly replied to, I still found him 

 unusually inquisitive, thus pursuing his queries, 

 " What's your yore-name ? What was your wife's 

 born name ? How many children have you ?" &c. 

 until I was quite wearied : and yet not to have satis- 

 fied him in every particular, would have given 

 offence, — an issue which I always endeavoured to 

 avoid. He informed me that within these few months 

 he and his family had returned from the other 

 side of the Orange River, where they had been with 

 their flocks in consequence of the drought so long 

 prevalent in the Colony ; and that during their 

 absence the Bushmen had entered the house, and 

 destroyed everything they could lay their hands on. 



While we remained in conversation, the Hottentot 

 herdsman belonging to the farm came up, saying he 

 should be obliged to go in another direction on the 

 morrow with the cattle, as there were " all too many 

 lions" in the place where he had been during the 

 day : he stated that one of those animals having 

 pursued the oxen for some time, they had become 

 quite wild, which at once explained the cause of 

 what I had witnessed on approaching the house. 

 The superintendent of the farm, in the absence 

 of Fisher, accompanied me to the waggon, ad- 

 vising me to be on my guard, and not permit the 

 oxen to stray, but secure them near our fire during 

 the night, as we were now in the midst of lions. 

 He said that not long since he had counted fifteen 



