whenever we reached some particularly charming spot. Indeed, it almost
seemed as though the wild creatures had the same aesthetic sense as
ourselves, for it was almost invariably at such places that we found
game in the greatest plenty. The delight of those days is, and I trust
ever will be an abiding remembrance. We slept comparatively little, for
sleep seemed but a waste of time, and it was better to lie awake under
the soft stars or the regal moon, listening to the wild sounds of the
desert, than to waste our precious hours in barren unconsciousness.
Whilst our three pack oxen, tied to a tree hard by and surrounded by a
fence of thorn-trees, chewed the cud of plenty or drew the deep, sighing
breath of bovine alarm, we would lie watching the flames leaping from
the kindled logs, and listening to the grunting of the lions, the
booming of the ostriches, or the screaming of the hyaenas. We did not
dread the lions, for we knew that where game was plentiful the king
killer of the waste seldom troubled man or his cattle. Our natives
could always be trusted to keep the fires alight. They were continually
full of meat, and therefore happy.
I may as well say at once that we never reached Lake Ngami. As a matter
of fact, we did not go much more than two-thirds of the way to it. We
dawdled upon our course to such an extent that we were obliged to return
from a spot only seven days' march beyond the Lutyahau River.
Hunters familiar with the regions indicated have all heard of the bitter
wells, with the unpronounceable Bushman name, not a great many days'
journey from Anderson's Vley. The water found in these wells is
extremely poisonous to Europeans. A few Bushmen, who have habituated
themselves to its use, are always to be found in the vicinity, but woe
betide the unhappy human creature of any other breed who slakes his
thirst at this poisonous spot; he will almost assuredly die if obliged
to drink the water for three days in succession. This spot can only be
visited by hunters with safety upon the rare occasions when the rains
have fallen so heavily on the surrounding country that water is
obtainable in the sand-filled rocky hollows, of which this area of the
desert is full. Taking advantage of the splendid condition of the
country, we determined to make a detour to the southward for the purpose
of visiting this little-frequented spot.
We arrived late one afternoon, and found the place deserted, although
showing signs of having recently been inhabited by human beings. We
knew what had taken place--the Bushmen had fled in alarm at our
approach, but we felt sure of meeting some of them within the next few
days.
The locality was desolate in the extreme, for the rich vegetation ceased
on every side within about a mile of the muddy puddles. These formed a
small group in a shallow depression some hundred yards in diameter. The
surrounding soil was evidently strongly charged with some alkaline
substance, which lay thickly on the surface in the form of white powder.
The water had a brownish tinge where it oozed out of the soil, and gave
forth an unpleasant smell, as though of decaying vegetable matter.
We soon found sweet rain-water in a donga close by, so decided to rest
for a few days. Rest is hardly the right term to use, for we worked
exceedingly hard. Each member of the party had his own favourite game.
Dick was not content with the slaughter of anything less than the King
of Beasts, Sam enjoyed shooting koodoos more than anything else, whilst
the slaying of the gentle giraffe brought the keenest joy to my hunter's
heart. Consequently, we three, although the best of chums, seldom
hunted together. Each preferred to take a couple of "boys" and follow
the chase of that which his soul panted for.
On the day following our arrival at the bitter wells I took my rifle and
wandered forth towards a considerable clump of comparatively large
trees, which could be descried about seven miles away to the westward,
and where I expected to meet with my favourite game. It was nearly
midday when I reached the trees, and just upon entering the grove I was
astonished to see the spoor of a large sandal leading along a game-path.
The spoor was certainly not that of a Bushman, its length being too
great and the impression too heavy. I pointed it out to one of my
followers, who uttered a low exclamation of surprise, and then we
followed the track silently into the thickest part of the grove.
On turning a sharp corner we suddenly stood still, for a small hut, or
"scherm," constructed of bushes and fragments of skin, stood before us.
It was not so much a hut as a kind of movable screen such as the
Hottentots use--one that could be shifted with little difficulty to meet
the changing wind. Its back was towards us. After pausing for a few
seconds, I stepped forward and looked under the roof of the structure
from the other side.
Again I stood still, my eyes being riveted by the strangest-looking
human creature it has ever been my lot to behold. The man was reclining
on a few jackal skins, and resting on his elbow. He was quite naked
except for a tanned hide, which was tied with a thong around his middle.
In spite of the dark and rough condition of his skin, his long matted
hair and beard clearly showed him to be an European. The hair hung over
his shoulders in a white fleece, and the beard lay upon his chest in a
long silvery tangle. His face was a striking one; the forehead was high
and intellectual, the nose prominent and somewhat hooked, the eyes were
dark and deep, and gleamed splenetically from under the shaggy and
prominent brows.
My two followers ran back with exclamations of terror, and crouched
behind a bush about thirty yards away. I myself, feeling more
astonishment than alarm, looked hard at the man, who gazed back fixedly
without the least appearance of surprise or embarrassment. Then I took
a step nearer and spoke.
"Good day. Who are you?"
"One who will never trouble you as much as you trouble him," came the
surly reply.
The voice had an even, metallic tone--a tone which I was strangely
reminded of years afterwards when I first listened to a phonograph.
There was a queer suggestion of impersonality about it. I tried to
think of something to say, but could not find a word, so taken aback was
I. The man's eyes rested on mine like those of an animated sphinx, and
seemed to exercise a queer kind of mesmerism. Withdrawing mine with
difficulty, I glanced around the "scherm" and took a rapid survey of its
contents. I noticed a number of sticks, pared flat, and with the edges
full of little notches. A Bushman's bow and a quiver of arrows were
stuck behind one of the supports, and a skin wallet hung from another.
Several curiously knobbed sticks lay on the floor, and a lump of raw
meat, which was in course of being invaded by an army of small red ants,
was stuck in the fork of a stake planted in the ground. Several ostrich
egg-shells, with small wooden pegs inserted at each end, lay about.
The silence became oppressive. The man still gazed at me, and I glanced
nervously and rapidly at him from time to time. The thought that he
perhaps was a lunatic crossed my mind, and I quickly surveyed his build
in view of the possibility of a struggle. The conclusion I came to was
that I should prefer to decline a contest. The man was old and rather
emaciated, but his muscles looked as hard as the pasterns of a
springbok.
"Is there much game hereabouts?" I hazarded.
The strange being suddenly stood up, and I was astonished at his height.
I involuntarily stepped back a couple of paces as he emerged from the
"scherm." He stretched forth his hand towards me, but not in a
threatening manner--although his eyes seemed to blaze--and spoke in the
same strange pitch, but much more loudly than before.
"Is not the desert wide enough that you come here to trouble me? You
have the whole world for your hunting-ground, and I have only this
little spot. Get you gone and trouble me no more, or I will get the
Bushmen to drive you off."
I began to lose my nervousness completely--although I could not help
seeing that the man's threat was a serious one. Bushmen had not been
giving much trouble of late years; however, I knew that they existed in
considerable numbers in that particular area of the Great Desert.
Probably this strange being possessed some influence over them, and if
so, nothing would be more easy than to have us killed when sitting
around our camp-fire by means of a volley of poisoned arrows poured in
at point-blank range. Such occurrences had happened before.
"Man alive," I said in a cheerful voice, "I don't want to interfere with
you; I came here quite by accident, and I shall go on my way without
giving you any trouble whatever. Ta-ta--I hope you are enjoying your
picnic."
I turned on my heel, but he called out to me to stop, and I again faced
round.
"How many are there in your party?" he said, after giving me a long,
fixed look.
"Two other white men and six boys."
"Wait for just a moment. I want to have a few words with you."
I set my rifle against the stump of a tree and stood before him with my
arms folded. The creature seemed to have become more human.
"Would it be of any use asking you not to tell your companions anything
about your having met me?"
"Well--you see--I have my two boys with me; even if I hold my tongue
they are sure to talk."
A queer ghost of a smile seemed to flit across the stern face.
"I know you will keep your word if you give it," he replied, "and I will
make it right with the boys. Will you promise? Take time to think if
you like."
A great pity for the poor creature before me seemed to swell in my
breast. Why should I not grant his request? Why should I darken, in no
matter how slight a degree, a life apparently overloaded by some great
tragedy? Of course I felt flattered by his estimate of my veracity.
"Yes, I promise," I said.
His face softened, and the tension of his limbs seemed to relax. When
next he spoke the tone of his voice had quite changed.
"Ah! I find that I am not as dead as I thought. Yours is the first
English voice I have heard for over twenty years. I wonder what fate
brought you here to wake me back to pain. Give me a grasp of your hand
and then go."
I held out my hand, and he seized it with a grip of iron. We looked
into each other's eyes for a moment, and mine dimmed with tears.
"Can you not come away with us?" I asked.
He shook his head vigorously.
"Is there nothing I can do for you--give you?"
"If you have at your camp any sort of a knife to spare I should be glad
of it."
"Right, I will bring you one to-morrow. And you need not fear that I
will say a word about you. Of course I cannot answer for the boys."
I picked up my gun and strode away rapidly, not wishing to give him an
opportunity of changing his mind. When I reached the bush behind which
my boys were crouching, they looked towards, and then past me, with
expressions of the utmost terror. I turned and found that the man was
closely and noiselessly following me. He beckoned to the boys, who
arose and followed him, crouching out of sight. I sat down and awaited
events. In a few minutes the boys returned, their faces ashen and their
heads bent. I strode on and they followed me in complete silence.
I did not then make for the camp, but for a low ridge to the northward,
on which a number of "camel-thorn" trees were visible. Here I wounded a
fine bull giraffe. Following the spoor took up the rest of the day, and
the sun was down before the poor brute lay before me dead. We camped
for the night alongside the carcase, there being a wet donga close at
hand. After a good supper, in which that most delicate of delicacies,
giraffe marrow, was an important element, I lit my pipe and basked in
the blaze of the logs. I had noticed that my two boys were silent and
depressed.
"Wildebeest," I said, addressing the senior, "what do you think of the
man we saw to-day?"
Wildebeest glanced uneasily over his shoulder into the darkness and
replied in a low tone--
"I saw no man to-day, Bass; neither did Ghola, nor even the Bass
himself."
Both boys covered their heads with the fragments of skin which did duty
for clothing and lay down. When I addressed them a few minutes
afterwards both pretended to be fast asleep, but I could tell by their
breathing that they were wide awake.
The sun was high when I reached the bitter wells next morning. My two
companions had gone away exploring to the southward; they had left a
note explaining that they would probably not return till the following
day. This suited me exactly. I had never been able to lie skilfully; I
hated having to deceive my chums. It may, therefore, be well imagined
that I was somewhat uneasy on the subject of my secret.
After a short rest, I again set off westward, taking with me the spare
knife. The sun was just setting when I reached the grove. The strange
man was still in his "scherm." A new piece of meat hung upon the forked
stick; nothing else appeared to have been changed since the previous
day. We sat up the whole night--he talking and I listening to what
surely must have been one of the saddest and strangest tales ever poured
into a human ear.
I passed my word to the effect that for twenty years, not alone would I
never mention a word of what he told me, but that I would not even write
it down. It will, accordingly, be understood that a good deal of the
language in which the tale is set forth is rather mine than his. I
have, however, a very vivid recollection of the circumstances related--
in fact many of the phrases used have never faded from my memory.
After various experiments as to the best mode of relation I find that
telling as though in the first person seems the most effective.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
_Two_.
"I went to sea as a boy and, in the late forties, was mate of a ship
which ran ashore on the coast of the Cape Colony, somewhere to the
eastward of Cape l'Agulhas. I disliked the sea; and when I managed to
obtain a clerkship in a store in Cape Town, determined to spend the rest
of my life ashore. But I soon sickened of town life. I had always
longed to visit the great unknown interior and to shoot big game, but
without means this was, of course, impossible.
"At length, I found myself with a few pounds in my pocket, so I bought a
small wagon and a team of oxen, and commenced business on my own account
as a travelling trader. I used to obtain goods in Cape Town on credit,
take them up-country to barter with, and afterwards return with cattle
and sheep, which I sold to the butchers at a good profit.
"My business prospered, so that within a few years I found myself in a
position to realise my dream of taking a trip up-country. I possessed a
strong, comfortable wagon, sixteen good oxen, and three smart ponies--
all of which I had obtained by trading. I bought several good guns, a
lot of gunpowder and lead, and, in fact, a complete hunting and trading
outfit.
"I had no fixed plan. Time was no object, so I meant to travel
northward in a leisurely manner, resting whenever I felt inclined to, or
when my cattle required to pick up in point of condition. Being a handy
man with tools I knew I could repair my wagon or guns should they
require it. I spoke Dutch well, and I took a lot of stuff for the
purpose of trading with the Boers for food.
"Always a solitary man, I did not feel the need of a companion, but I
took two servants with me--an old Hottentot named Danster and his
grandson, a lad of sixteen. These had been in my service for several
years, and were willing to follow me anywhere.
"It was October when I started, and it was well on in September of the
following year before I reached the Orange River. The course I had
taken was somewhere to the westward of the usual trade route. I wanted
to see as much unknown country as possible, and I had an idea that gold
might be found in the great, high, central plain. The rains had fallen
more plentifully than for years previously--almost as heavily as they
have fallen here this season--so I had an easy time of it. I just went
slowly along, shooting game when I wanted meat and pausing when the
desire to rest came over me. The farther northward I went, the scarcer
became the farms, until at length the only people I met were the few
wandering Boers who lived in wagons and mat-houses and moved about on
the track of the rains.
"Fate or chance led me to a bend in the Orange River where a certain
Boer and his family dwelt. Although the family spoke nothing but Dutch,
this Boer was a Scotsman by birth. He had come to Africa when a child,
and had spent his life on the fringe of the desert. He was now old,
blind, and feeble, and had evidently not long to live. The family
consisted of three sons--the eldest being twenty-five and the youngest
nineteen years of age--and a niece, a girl of eighteen. These young men
were the three greatest scoundrels it has ever been my lot to meet, but
the girl was beautiful and good, and I loved her from the first moment
my eyes rested on her face.
"I will try and describe the homestead and its dwellers. The house was
small and low, built of round stones with mud plaster and thatched with
reeds. The furniture was rough-hewn from logs carried down by the great
river when in flood. The old Boer was rich in cattle, sheep and horses.
Grain was grown on a patch of sandy ground which was sometimes
fertilised by the river when at its highest flood. Brayed skins served
principally for clothing and wholly for bedding.
"Piet, the eldest of the brothers, was a tall, melancholy man with a
narrow face, thick lips, and hair the colour of a fox. Gerrit, the
second, was short and powerfully built. He had black eyes, beard and
hair, and his complexion was swarthy. He was passionate and cruel, and
the poor old man used to shake at the sound of his voice. Sandy, the
youngest, was a powerfully built fellow, and also had red hair. His
face was like that of a weasel. He was lame from an injury received in
childhood, but so strong that he could hold fast the leg of an ox no
matter how hard the animal kicked. He seldom spoke, and he had the
strongest aversion to meeting with his pale eyes even the glance of
anyone else.
"And the girl--how shall a man describe the first and only woman he has
loved--and that after she has been dead for twenty years? Alida was
dark, dark as a gipsy, and of middle height. I had not seen much of
women--I had never pleased them, nor had they been attracted by me--so,
although thirty-five years of age, I had not thought of marrying. But
here, in this God-forgotten corner of the wilderness, I suddenly came
face to face with my mate, clad in rough skins that could not hide her
beauty, and as ready to go with me to the end of the world as I was to
take her.
"Alida was the orphan daughter of the blind old man's only brother. He
and his wife had both been killed by lightning in a mat-house when Alida
was a baby, and the child had been dragged out from under the flaming
roof by an old Bushwoman. Then her uncle adopted her, and she grew up
in the rough, uncouth household like a gazelle among swine.
"It was a strange household: the old man lived in terror of his sons,
and it was Alida who took his part and protected him from their
violence. His wife had been dead three years, and he longed for the day
of his own release. Every night he would pray aloud before going to
bed, and the sons would mock him to his face. These three young men
hated each other, and they all tormented the girl with proffers of love,
she meeting their advances with the utmost scorn.
"A few days after my arrival at the homestead Piet recommended me to
send my oxen to graze on a certain ridge within sight of the house,
where the grass looked green and luxuriant. I did so, and within three
days all my team except four were dead. The ridge was covered with the
dreaded `tulp,' which is deadly poison to all cattle. I am satisfied
that the three brothers put their villainous heads together and devised
this infamy with the view of getting possession of the contents of my
wagon, which they coveted. I was in despair, for I could see no plan of
replacing the cattle except by parting with most of my trading stock,
and without this I could not proceed upon my trip. There appeared no
way out of the difficulty, so I thought to remain where I was for a
short time and then endeavour to make my way back to Cape Town.
"Such is the effect of a guilty conscience that the three ruffians could
not bear to be in my presence; they appeared to dread my face, so they
spent most of their time away from the homestead. In fact they made a
practice of taking their guns early in the morning and making for the
veldt, whence they returned late at night, and at once went sulkily to
bed. Thus, they never suspected that there was anything of the nature
of love between Alida and myself, whereas we had come to an
understanding within a week of the disaster to my cattle. It came about
thus. One night after Piet had come in, I heard Alida reproach him for
his dastardly deed, which he did not attempt to deny. Next day, when
the coast was clear, I mentioned the subject to her, and she burst into
a flood of tears. Then I tried to comfort her, and we soon found out
that we were more important to each other than all else that the world
contained.
"I asked her to come away with me, but she refused to leave the old man,
so I made up my mind to stay near her, at all risks, until his death,
and then to take her and make her my wife. I knew that the old man
could not live much longer; he became feebler day by day. The murder of
my oxen, which he had heard discussed, preyed upon his mind to such an
extent that he became rapidly weaker, and at length was unable to leave
his bed.
"I heard of a Hottentot camp situated some three days' journey away, up
the river, so I sent old Danster, my servant, to see if he could
purchase any cattle there. My idea was to dispose of some of my
stock-in-trade and acquire a sufficient number of oxen to enable me to
get away with my wagon as soon as ever Alida should be free. The
brothers had refused to sell me any cattle except at an impossibly
exorbitant rate. I knew there would be extraordinary difficulty in
getting Alida out of the clutches of her cousins, but the thing had to
be accomplished somehow or another.
"In six days' time Danster returned with a favourable report, so I made
secret preparations for my departure. By this time the brothers had
begun to feel suspicious of my relations with their cousin, so one of
their number always hung about the homestead.
"My intention was to load three of my four remaining oxen, which had
been trained to the pack, with tobacco, coloured handkerchiefs and other
stuff which I knew the Hottentots valued, and then steal away,
unobserved if possible. I reckoned on being able to obtain six animals.
These, with my other four, would suffice to pull the wagon with its
diminished load. Danster had done his best to induce the Hottentots to
bring their cattle down for me to see, but the reputation of the
brothers was such an evil one that no one from the encampment would
venture near the farm.
"At the same time preparations for a journey, the object of which I
never learned, were being carried on by the brothers. Guns, saddles and
other gear were furbished up, and horses carefully selected out of the
half wild herd. Alida managed to let me know that Piet and Gerrit were
going away, and were not expected to return for five or six days. I
looked upon this as a piece of good luck, and determined to take my
departure immediately after they had started.
"Next morning at daybreak the two mounted their horses and rode forth,
and no sooner were they out of sight than I sent Danster to drive up my
oxen. The packs were ready, so I hurriedly adjusted them and, after
bidding farewell to Alida and the old man, made haste in the direction
of the Hottentot camp. The last thing I saw as I left the homestead was
the evil face of Sandy peering like a weasel round the corner of the
building.
"I travelled all day and camped at sundown. So tired was I that I fell
asleep at once, leaving old Danster to collect fuel and tie up the oxen.
The distance I had travelled was not great, but the slowness of the
gait of the oxen had tired me. The last thing I remember is seeing old
Danster nodding drowsily over the newly-kindled fire. His grandson had
been left at the farm to look after my remaining ox.