70 
THE NEW AFRICA 
almost impossible to transport fat on an extensive trip like ours 
—rather would we depend upon replenishing our stock from 
time to time from occasional hippo or eland that might fall to 
our guns. We also eschewed such luxuries as sugar and flour, 
owing to their weight, and lived, when we got it, on native corn 
to our meat. Of tea, however, we had abundance ; and on the 
luxury of this noble beverage, made with the beautiful Chobe 
water, and mixed with the milk of our goats, after a hard day’s 
march, my pen would gladly dilate. When, however, we obtained 
a supply of hippo or eland fat, the jubilation in camp might have 
led an onlooker to conclude that something ‘ stronger ’ was 
answerable for the gaiety prevalent amongst us. Franz literally 
became intoxicated on the quantities he absorbed, going from 
pot to pot of the bearers’ messes, into each of which he had 
cunningly inserted a titbit. He appropriated his own when 
done, and as it was not weighed into the pot, he never came off 
second best in the transaction. The fat-absorbing qualities of a 
native, especially of Hottentot blood, under hunting conditions 
are such that even an Esquimaux might tremble for his reputa¬ 
tion in a contest. 
Owing to the accumulated masses of tangled grass and dry 
wood lying under the trees in the neighbourhood, that perhaps 
for years had been undisturbed by fire, we nearly had the 
expedition burnt out, when Franz, for reasons of his own, one 
day ignited the grass on the route. While resting at midday a 
sudden wind brought the flames on to us with great rapidity, 
surrounding us by fire with no escape even by the river, where 
the banks were lined with last year’s dead reeds, likely to burn 
fiercely when once caught by the flames. Hastily lighting a 
counter fire, and depositing the goods on the burnt space thus 
laid bare, we lay down on the scorched ground to get as low as 
possible from the suffocating smoke till the danger was past, but 
the experience , of that sharp, stinging, blinding smoke inculcated 
a lesson not likely to be forgotten in the future. 
Our march was enlivened by the sight of many bright birds, 
such as the blue jay with its uncanny note; beautiful bee-eaters, 
