A HOTTENTOT MAID. 
225 
camel is dode.’ The Kaffir who was herding the 
oxen had found her about a mile off. We started 
immediately; she was a fine old cow, and very fat. 
I had shot her right through the jugular vein, and 
she had bled to death. The giraffes galloped right 
through the oxen, alarming the latter very much, 
and they all took away in different directions. We 
turned out in quest of them, and it was many hours 
ere we recovered them all. The ground being soft 
with the rain, we were able to follow the spoor. I 
cannot easily imagine a greater fix than to lose the 
oxen in this country. 
I expect the axle will be finished to-day. I am 
afraid to go out to hunt, for fear of losing myself. 
We have nothing whatever to guide the eye by— 
no hill, rock, stream, or mountain—all is one dense, 
wooded flat; the wagon-spoor is the only thing, and 
having twice lost myself, I have no wish to run a 
third risk. 
I will give the reader a description of old la, our 
Hottentot maid :—She is one of Pharaoh’s lean kine, 
unusually tall, straight as a kitchen poker; long, 
lean, scraggy neck; the smallest little pig eyes in the 
world; no nose, but two huge nostrils; high cheek 
bones, sunken cheeks, wide mouth, very thick lips, 
just the colour of the mulberry juice, low fore¬ 
head, and small head. I believe she has about the 
eighth of an inch long of wool on the latter, but, as 
it is always swathed in a handkerchief, I am not cer¬ 
tain. She is, I believe, somewhere between fifty and 
Q 
