Notes on South African Hunting. 
53 
Barutse Gifts. 
or may not want—but which you are bound to 
take—and expect something in return. If they 
do not get the return gift, they give you 
nothing the next time you pass—a look into 
futurity which troubled me little. 
After breakfast the footpath led us on and on 
through thickets and thorns, till it suddenly 
ended in a lagoon. We had not expected this 
of such a previously well-behaved path, and 
our respect for its character led us to hunt 
about and see if there was no way round ; and 
our search was the more diligent, inasmuch as 
crocodiles abound in these waters. However, 
we had to wade the lagoon, and, in the course 
of the afternoon, four or five more ; and after 
a long but pretty walk we came to where we 
were to sleep. From here the river takes a 
bend to the south, and we were to cut across 
the bend on the morrow and arrive at the Falls 
the day after. We started early, and the 
path took us over hill and dale, some dis¬ 
tance from the river. Such a path as it was 
too ! Of a size about large enough for an 
ordinary jack-snipe to hop along on one leg, 
and shaped like an inverted V; and one could 
E 
