A HURRICANE. 
131 
We took six bees’ nests in this neighbourhood, 
thanks to the honeybirds, but it was the wrong time 
of year, and we did not find much in them. 
25 th. — Made a pair of gaiters of impala skin, but 
was in great straits, as I had lost my sail needle. 
Shot a bush-buck, and severely wounded a koodoo 
bull, but lost him, as the dogs were worse than use¬ 
less, owing to the excessive heat and overfeeding. The 
heat was so great that the gun-barrels would blister 
my hands, and the heel-plate was so hot that I could 
not bear it to my shoulder, through a thick shirt. 
On one occasion, on stooping down to drink, some 
blue flint-stones on which I had placed my bare 
knee raised a blister instantly. 
I had sent Mahoutcha to buy some amobella 
meal of the Kaffirs a day or two previously, and 
he returned to-day with the intelligence that all 
the young and fighting men were gone. Two sons 
of Panda’s were quarrelling who was to succeed him, 
and a civil war was imminent. I decidedly wished 
myself out of the country, as the sight of blood makes 
Kaffirs worse than wild beasts, and when once they 
have tasted blood, they would think nothing of 
knocking on the head anything that comes in 
their way. 
28 th. — I was awakened out of a sound sleep very 
unpleasantly. It blew a hurricane, and my tent being 
broadside to the wind, the pegs on the weather-side 
all gave at once, and were carried to Bagdad by the 
jerk, and I was left exposed to a downfall of rain, 
