THE AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 



/21 



said, Sir, "When the attack is mild one 

 foot in length is cut off ; if severe another 

 six inches, and so on, with one or two 

 gashes in the quarter thrown in." He 

 also told us that puff-adder poison is put 

 in, which causes more irritation, l)ut we 

 wouldn't believe that, although Faucepan 

 is not far wrong in his statements as a 

 rule. I asked him how they would treat 

 Manx cattle (which I had heard had no 

 tails), but he changed the subject. 

 Stumped, I thought. 



However, to hark back to Entusi, he 

 must have had a very severe attack, judg- 

 ing from what Saucepan had told us, and 

 any reference to his stum} y tail was a 

 signal for a violent outburst of temper. I 

 shall never forget one day while we were 

 outspanned about five miles from home, 

 having been sent for a load of groceries, 

 &c. We were fairly hungry, and were 

 tucking into some sweet grass, when the 

 local herd came along to have a gossip 

 with us. One young steer about three 

 years old came mooning along singing 

 a snatch of some sailor song which his 

 uncle had picked up during a trip to 

 Durban— something about 'You swing 

 your tail but you can't catch me, mind how 

 you swing your tail," &c. Now, as bad 

 luck would have it, he happened to be 

 passing Entusi and gazing in his direc- 

 tion ; I do not for one minute believe 

 that it was in any way intended to be a 

 cut at him. However, Entusi wheeled 

 quarter-light and made one mad rush, 

 knocking this unsuspecting youngster 

 head over heels, and then poured out a 

 tirade about insults, want of reverence, 

 bad form with visitors, &c., &c., his 

 stump twitching vigorously all the time, 

 and his head very erect. Profuse apolo- 

 gies and attempted explanation of 

 innocence only fanned the flames. Entusi 

 finished up by saying that he hoped if he 

 didn't lose his tail from lungsickness, 

 some transport rider would twist it off 

 for him for not pulling well enough. On 

 another occasion a young wag passed 

 Entusi, saying in a stage whisper, "Heads 

 I win, and tails you [lose." " You want 

 me to toss you do you ?" said Entusi, and 

 he did. 



I took a good many loads of produce 

 into D'Urban and the City after this, and 

 in my own estimation was about the best 

 puller in the team ; anyway, when the 



Boers invaded Natal, I was selected 

 to form one of a span of sixteen to do 

 work for the A.S.C. At first the novelty 

 of the thing was rather nice and interest- 

 ing. We went to the City and met a lot 

 of pa's, and made others. Our loads were 

 light and our treks short, being generally 

 from the Showyard to Fort Napier with 

 kits for the Tommies. Our conductor 

 app'?ared to be a very nice young man, 

 but it seemed to strike us all that he had 

 not lived among cattle all his life. We 

 did not understand some of his words 

 when he used to come riding along by 

 the side of us with his hunting crop, and 

 shouting, " Forward, forward, yohoy ; 

 gee up ; get a move on ; make 'em trot 

 ycu black savage." Fortunately he could 

 not ride with our wagon all the time, as 

 there were several others under his super- 

 vision, so we were rather amused than 

 otherwise when he did come along. But 

 what we did ol)ject to was our grazing ; 

 at first it was passable, but after a time 

 there was not a decent bite left, and we 

 kept wondering when this .Johnny was 

 going to change our grazing. Things 

 were getting pretty bad when fortunately 

 Masenga came along. What exactly hap- 

 pened I do not know, but what I do 

 know is that shortly afterwards we had a 

 fresh grazing run and a new conductor. 

 Beside this, one or two of our span who 

 had been out of sorts for a short time 

 were promptly sent oft' and fresh ones 

 sent in their place. 



Our span was now an extra good one, 

 and 1 was very disappointed that we did 

 not attract more notice as we marched 

 througli the streets ; but no, what every- 

 one used to gape at were spans of uniform 

 colour. A black span, a red span, a khaki 

 span — these they would go into raptures 

 over, whereas we could have pulled 

 them three times round the Market 

 Square. But I will say this, that on one 

 occasion when we were taking an extra 

 h'avy load up Longmarket Street, I 

 heard an old transport rider, who was 

 talking to a farmer friend of his, say, 

 " Man, those oxen pull evenly ; I wish I 

 had ten spans like that." I thought to 



myself — Well, that from old is 



worth more than all the sily exclamations 

 made by an ignorant public over colour. 



After a long spell at this, we eventually 

 joined the Relief Column which was 



