WITBOY’S EXPLOITS 
337 
while the gigantic Witboy walked through the smaller Namak¬ 
was, dealing them blows right and left with his sticks from both 
hands that left his ‘ngwati ’—writing—on many a broken head. 
They packed the goods on to the wagons again, and sent 
after the cattle, which they found the Namakwas had driven away 
to some inaccessible spot, thus preventing Stremboom from 
proceeding on his journey. At night some women of the tribe 
came to the camp and advised Stremboom to fly, as they said 
his life was threatened, for they had heard the Namakwas decide 
to kill him in the night and take his goods. If he was prepared 
to fly, they would show him where he could obtain one of the 
Namakwas’ horses to ride away on. Witboy, however, who un¬ 
derstood the people, concluded it was intended to make it appear 
that Stremboom had stolen a horse, and consequently, when 
found out, had fled from the country leaving his goods behind, 
which the Namakwas seized as compensation. He growled out 
his ideas to Stremboom, and with his sticks, drove the women 
away from camp, with the further idea that the Namakwas 
should not even have the excuse of saying that Stremboom had 
enticed the women to come and visit him. They waited for three 
days without molestation, when one morning they espied their 
cattle grazing close to camp, for the Namakwas, finding they 
could not intimidate Stremboom or implicate his people, thought 
it best to let them leave the country quietly. 
Stremboom also related how later Witboy had rushed to his 
rescue at a lion hunt, when during the chase a lion jumped on 
a native five yards from Stremboom, whose gun refused to go off 
at this critical moment. While the lion was crunching the native 
up like a shell, Stremboom stood trying to put his gun to rights, 
expecting every second that the lion would leave the native and 
spring on him. Witboy intervened and shot the lion dead in the 
brain on top of the mangled corpse of the native. 
During the relation of these episodes Jan Witboy lay wrapped 
in a blanket shivering in one of his periodical attacks of fever, 
interpolating remarks and corrections to Stremboom’s narrative, 
that showed how keenly he appreciated his master’s approval for 
Y 
