382 
AFRICAN HUNTING. 
part of my cooking utensils. The Kaffirs care for 
nothing ; they carry all their worldly goods on their 
backs. They eat, drink, snuff, smoke, dance, sing, and 
sleep, and if they can do all this, they do not seem to 
have a wish on earth ungratified. I often envy them, 
I must confess, as I feel very dull and lonely at 
times. I was amused at one fellow last night, whose 
only article of clothing was a straw hat, made after 
the fashion of a bowl. Charlie, my leader, who is a 
good-hearted boy, compassionated him, and said he 
would give him an old worn-out cotton blanket of his, 
worth when new about 2s. 6<i., and now about 1 \d .; 
but, on second thoughts, said he must give him his 
hat for it, and the exchange was made on the spot. 
To-morrow at daybreak we leave the river, and our 
old blear-eyed Masara guide says it is two long days 
to the next water; after that, we come to the 
Madinas and Bushmen, and if I can get through the 
dense forests, which my authority says are im¬ 
passable in the dry season, I hope yet to reach the 
Falls of the Zambesi. 
13th .—I have been fortunate in getting two good 
specimens of the rarer sort of antelopes, viz. roan 
antelope and gemsbok, or oryx; also, a giraffe 
cow, in prime condition. My horse deserves all the 
credit of the gemsbok, as he ran with the speed and 
endurance of a steam-engine. The country was an 
immense flat, and I had no thoughts of coming up 
with the herd, and was just pulling up, but seeing them 
evidently hard-blown, and feeling my horse strong 
