16 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
That night Cann came back to say that old Makgoe 
was hankering after the repeating rifle, and asked if he 
should negotiate matters for me. Seeing no reason to 
the contrary, I assented, and next morning found him 
waiting for me with the horse and two cows — and a 
six-month-old calf thrown into the bargain — a compli- 
ment which I acknowledged by sending the chief a score 
of extra cartridges for the rifle. 
Matters being thus satisfactorily arranged, we 
started, our cavalcade consisting of two waggons, each 
drawing twelve oxen, six spare beasts, two milch cows 
and calves, and four horses — not for netting four dogs — 
and the attendant company of Lulu and myself, old 
Kert, Jan, the two Bastards, a Kaffir, six Bushmen and 
one Bushwoman, who insisted on following her husband, 
some of his children being in the veldt to the north. 
The country was of the same character as before, but 
the sama being now large enough for the cattle and 
horses to eat, we were not so anxious about finding 
water. In fact, we used the sama juice as a substitute 
for Adam’s ale, for everything but coffee. 
There are two ways of extracting the water from 
the sama : one to cut them in pieces and boil them, 
skimming off the solids and scum ; the other — the real 
Bushman fashion — to dig a hole in the sand, and build 
a fire in it, and when the fire has been burning some 
time to cover the glowing embers with a layer of sand. 
As soon as this is thoroughly heated, the hot mass is 
pushed on one side, the sama piled in its place, and 
then buried beneath it, the whole heap being covered 
with a fresh layer of sand. Sometimes another fire is 
lighted on the top of this. In any case this “ oven,” 
with its contents, is left to cool down all night, and 
next morning the sama are taken out and eaten. The 
taste is not so insipid as one would think, especially if 
eaten with a little suet — or, better still, a la Devonshire, 
with cream ; but it suited me better to have the roasted 
sama squeezed into a pail of water, and, leaving it to 
cool, to drink it mixed with milk, which makes quite 
a refreshing beverage ; in any case the sama, whether 
