76 Notes on South African Hunting. 
A sight of food—but not for us. 
tempt him to sell any. Where he was going 
to I don’t know, but he certainly was not going 
farther than the next cattle post—twenty miles 
may be—where he would get lots of meat. We 
mixed our blessings and cursings that time. 
After a very long hard walk of about thirty 
miles, Ayton and I arrived at water just at sun¬ 
down. None of the boys turned up that night, 
so we had to go to sleep without coffee or 
blankets, and very cold and horrid it was. 
However we got a few namaquas which helped 
us out. A namaqua is a kind of little sand 
grouse, about the size of a quail. He flies like 
greased lightning in a glass tube, and has a skin 
that would make good shoe leather. He is 
very good to eat if he is properly cooked. It 
takes about a dozen of them to make a meal. 
These birds come down to drink, morning and 
evening, and with lots of cartridges, and not 
being dependent on one’s gun for food, one can 
have very good fun with them. Subsequently, 
when we did depend on them mostly for food, we 
used to massacre them with success on the 
ground; but as a sport this method is far 
below par. 
