TURNING DAY INTO NIGIIT. 
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ings, in great numbers. The first flight or two was 
the signal for everyone to turn out armed with sticks 
and kerries, in throwing which the Kaffirs are very 
expert, and I have seen five or six cut down with 
one stick, and some good bags made. There is also 
a kind of social crosbeak which build large commu¬ 
nities of overhanging nests, like purses, on tall trees. 
On outspanning for the night near these, my fellows, 
soon after sunset, tied a fire-stick to the end of the 
very long whip-stick ; the nests being dry as tinder 
caught fire at once, and the poor inmates fell down 
in numbers, half roasted. A couple of minutes’ more 
fire was all they required, and they were considered 
a dainty, being very fat. 
5 th [Sunday). — I am now within one hard 
day of Sechele’s, having got on by slow and easy 
stages so far, though we were disappointed in finding 
the water we expected. I met the oxen I sent for 
yesterday, but there are only nine instead of eighteen, 
and they are all as thin as whipping-posts ; most of 
the remainder are dead from starvation. 
I do not know what my Kaffirs would do, were it 
not for the opportune deaths of divers oxen, which, 
though so lean that they can scarcely hold together, 
still manage to support life in the bipeds. 
The days are so insufferably hot, we can do 
nothing but turn day into night, and do all our 
treking at night. A man that leads this life richly 
deserves every penny he makes, though the lazy, 
well-fed Boers,'who never leave home, are jealous 
