FROM DUTOITSPAN TO LIKATLONG.
My travelling companions--Departure from the
diamond-fields--The Vaal River and valley--Visit to Koranna
village--Structure of Koranna huts--Social condition of
the Korannas--Klipdrift--Distinction between Bechuanas and
Korannas--Interior of a Koranna hut--Fauna of the Vaal valley--A
bad road--A charming glen--Cobras and their venom--Ring-neck
snakes--The mud in the Harts River.
Having completed my equipment, and made all necessary preparations,
I had next to make a decision, most important in expeditions of
this kind, as to the individuals who should accompany me. My first
idea had been to take with me only a few black servants; but on due
consideration, I found it advisable to abandon this, and to travel
with a party of white men. Without any hesitation my choice fell upon
the same two young men who had been my companions in the baboon-hunt
at Christmas; and, as a third associate, I invited Friedrich Eberwald,
a native of Thuringia, to join us. He was an excellent fellow, who
subsequently proved one of my most faithful friends, and in my second
journey afforded me very valuable assistance; he had always had an
irresistible love of seeing foreign lands, and after having visited
nearly all Europe and Asia Minor, and many parts of North and South
America, he had come to try his luck in the diamond-fields, where,
however, he had been very moderately successful.
The real object that I contemplated in my first journey was to accustom
myself to the climate by spending a few weeks in the open air, as well
as to ascertain by actual experience what amount of provisions and
other necessaries would be required for a more prolonged expedition
into the interior. My scheme was to go direct to Klipdrift, then down
the valley of the Vaal River as far as the mouth of the Harts River,
and after making our way north-east up the Harts valley, so as to get
some acquaintance, if we could, with the Batlapin tribes, to return and
reside again for a time in my old quarters at the diamond-fields.
In a party consisting of four men, five horses, and five dogs,
we quitted the dusty atmosphere of Dutoitspan, and after several
_contretemps_ not worth recording, we reached the heights that
border the banks of the Vaal River beyond Hebron, and with much
satisfaction gazed upon the refreshing green of the valley, being
very shortly afterwards gratified by the view of the river itself,
then moderately full of water. On the southern bank we could discern
the scattered huts of Pniel, a small Koranna village and a German
missionary station.
[Illustration: “FORE-SPANNING.”]
This village had a most melancholy aspect, and a visit there
convinced me that amongst no other native race, with the exception,
perhaps, of the Matabele, have missionary labours been so ineffectual
as among the Korannas. Their circumstances, their social condition, and
their culture are all of the very lowest grade; and without accepting
any of the benefits of civilization, they seem only to have adopted
its vices; and drunkenness, entailing disease and its other terrible
consequences, prevails most lamentably amongst them.
[Illustration: KORANNAS.]
Of all South African races, the Korannas bestow the least labour
upon the structure, and the least care upon the internal arrangements
of their dwellings. Their indolence may be attributed to, or aggravated
by, the climate; but in want of energy the two Hottentot tribes, the
Korannas and the Griquas, surpass even the calumniated Bushmen, who,
at any rate, contrived to decorate the walls of the natural caves they
inhabited with drawings in ochre, and to adorn their stone roof with
figures, however roughly chiselled, of men and animals, and other
objects of nature. It is only when he is utterly without the means of
procuring the brandy which is his sole and engrossing desire, that a
Koranna is ever known to rouse himself from his habitual sloth, and
inaptitude for endurance, to make an effort to hire himself out to an
employer.
[Illustration: KORANNA HUTS IN THE VALLEY OF THE HARTS RIVER.
_Page 96._]
The huts may be seen either singly or in small groups, sometimes on
the bare hillside, sometimes on the river-bank, or at the edge of a
saltpan, or more rarely in the rocky glen of the river; they scarcely
ever exceed twelve feet in diameter, and five feet in height; their
shape, as far as its general want of symmetry allows it to be defined,
may be said to be hemispherical; and they are all quite unenclosed.
Their construction, as their appearance suggests, is of the most
primitive order; the women build them by simply taking a number of
branches, about six feet in length, arranging them in a circle, tying
their upper ends all together in a bundle, and throwing some rush mats
over the framework thus hastily put up. The external fabric is then
complete. An aperture is left large enough to admit a man on all-fours;
but this, which is the only communication with the open air, is often
closed by another mat hung over it from the inside, where everything is
as squalid and comfortless as can be conceived. A hollow dug out in the
centre is the only fireplace; a pole, supported by two forked uprights,
supports the entire wardrobe of the household, which rarely consists of
more than a few tattered rags of European attire, and some sheepskins
and goatskins; half a dozen pots and pans complete the inventory of
the furniture. Although, as I have said, the huts ordinarily have no
enclosure, yet where the cows and goats are exposed to the nocturnal
attacks of hyænas or leopards, a sort of shelter is occasionally made
of dry mimosa branches, but as a general rule they have only a dunghill
for their accommodation. In these dreariest of abodes a dull, dumb
silence usually prevails; and it is only when brandy has been brought
in from the neighbouring town, or procured from some itinerant dealer,
that there is any animation or excitement. Morning and evening, as
the naked children drive the cattle to their pasturage, or bring them
back, there is some transient exhibition of vitality in the community;
otherwise all is stillness and stagnation.
As an exceptional case, when a Koranna of somewhat superior means can
afford himself the luxury of a few Makalahari and Masarwa as servants
and slaves, a little agriculture is carried on, but it is well-nigh
always on a very limited scale. No doubt many parts of the country
offer great natural advantages for farming operations; and if a little
labour were spent in forming embankments, and in judiciously diverting
the streams of the Harts and Vaal rivers, the produce in all likelihood
would be very abundant.
As a distinct race, the Korannas are dying out. In this respect,
they are sharing the lot of the Hottentots proper who dwell in Cape
Colony and Griqualand West, and of the Griquas whose home is in New or
East Griqualand, or what is called Noman’s-land round Rockstadt. So
continual has been the diminution of their number, that they are not
half what they formerly were, and their possessions have diminished
in a still greater proportion. Lazy and dirty, crafty, and generally
untruthful, living without a thought beyond the immediate present,
capable of well-nigh any crime for the sake of fire-water--to my mind
they offer an example of humanity as degraded and loathsome as can be
imagined. Employ them in the far wilderness, where no European is at
hand to supply them with spirits, and it is possible that they might be
found more desirable than Kaffirs for cattle-drivers or horse-breakers;
but after making several trials of them myself, and using every effort
to keep them sober, I was always compelled to give up in despair.
We stayed in Pniel nearly three hours, our road, after we quitted it,
lying across some high bushy plains covered with drifts of loose sand,
which tried our horses sorely. Nothing could be much more comfortless
than our encampment at night; and we were glad to start off at early
dawn next morning on our way to Klipdrift.
The road, which had hitherto been somewhat monotonous, was now varied
by little valleys alternating with bushy plains. Steinbocks and
duykerbocks also enlivened the scene, and numbers of small bustards
gambolled in the thickets that in some places rose from six to twelve
feet in height. The gazelles conceal themselves throughout the day
beneath the low bushwood, the steinbock (_Tragulus rupestris_)
especially very rarely leaving its retreat, except at night or at the
approach of danger; it is consequently unaccustomed to exposure to
broad daylight, a circumstance to which I attribute the blindness of
nine out of ten of those which have been kept in confinement; with
the duykerbock (_Cephalolophus mergens_) the blindness is not so
common, as it often issues forth in the daytime in search of food.
Practised shots hunt both these gazelles with a rifle, but under any
circumstance it requires a very skilful hand to bring down one of the
little creatures, which are under two feet high, at a distance of 300
yards.
There are sportsmen, as they call themselves, who hunt these graceful
animals with greyhounds--a rough method of torture that has been
introduced by white men into all parts of the world. Formerly dogs
were only employed by the natives of South Africa in hunting ferocious
and dangerous animals, or such as were required for the sake of their
skins. Amongst these may be reckoned the South African jackal (_Canis
mesomelas_ and _cinereus_), the caama-fox, the earth-wolf
(_Proteles Lalandii_), and the genet.
The steinbock--or “steenbuck,” as it is called by the Boers--and
the duykerbock are represented all along the wooded slopes of the
plateaus of South and Central Africa down to the coast by the grysbock
(_Tragulus melanotis_) and the small blauwbock (_Cephalolophus
cæruleus_); whilst towards the north their place is taken by the
orbeki, that are found living in pairs on the plains in the salt lake
district, and in small herds beyond the Zambesi.
Travelling here across the wooded hills was a business that in itself
occupied all our attention; for the road was full of stones, just like
the dry bed of a torrent, and our waggon was jolted about with such
violence that it cost us the life of one of our dogs that was caught
unawares under the wheel. It was a relief to find ourselves at the Vaal
River ferry, where, for the sum of ten shillings, we were all taken
across.
On reaching the right bank of the Vaal, we made our encampment at the
foot of a hill not far from Klipdrift. Compared with the other towns in
South Africa, Klipdrift may be called pretty. About 150 little houses,
built partly of stone and partly of iron, are all that remain of what
was once the capital of the river-diggings, which had a population
of 5000 or more. They lie upon the slope of some low hills that are
scarcely eighty feet above the level of the river-bed, and are covered
with countless blocks of dark brown trap.
Coming from the south-south-east, the river here makes a bend to
the west, and in various places, both above and below the town, its
murmuring stream is broken by a number of little islands, sometimes
rocky, sometimes overgrown with grass, and occasionally covered with
trees, all contributing an air of pleasantness to the general scene. At
the time of my visit tall trees were growing on both banks, the left
bank being considerably higher than the right.
The inhabitants of the native quarter of Klipdrift, consisting of
Batlapins and Barolongs, are very industrious. The men get their living
as day-labourers, while the women earn their share of the housekeeping
expenses by doing laundry-work; and when they are engaged in washing
linen on the banks of the river, they give a picturesque and animated
character to the scene.
Even the most cursory glance is sufficient to detect the difference
between the Koranna and Bechuana races; and there can be no hesitation
in affirming that the representatives of the Bechuanas, the Batlapins
and Barolongs, are by far the more comely, both in face and form.
Varying in complexion from a dull black to a deep brown, their
features, if not handsome, could hardly be called plain, whilst the
yellow-brown countenances of the Korannas are literally ugly, the
eyes being deeply sunk, the nose scarcely developed at all, the
jawbone thick, the lips far protruding. The skull corresponds with the
ignoble profile, and is small and narrow. The Koranna women, too, are
especially disfigured by an awkward gait, which seems to arise from
some singular formation of the lower vertebral column. Either their
cheeks or their foreheads are usually daubed with red ochre or tattooed
with a labyrinth of blue lines; and I have seen many of them with both
forehead and cheeks so covered with brown and black streaks that they
had precisely the appearance of monkeys.
[Illustration: INTERIOR OF A KORANNA HUT.]
During a visit to the Koranna quarter I entered one of the huts. The
scene was truly strange. In a hollow in the middle of the hut were some
glowing embers; in the midst of the embers was a fleecy object, which
on a second glance I perceived to be a lamb in the process of roasting.
Two women, naked to their waists, were lounging on some mats smoking.
Several children, quite naked, their skins, naturally yellow, begrimed
with the blackest dirt, were playing about; while the head of the
family, in the tattered remnants of an old European coat, was sitting
close to the hearth, stirring the ashes, and intently watching the
cooking. All of a sudden he made a very loud smack with his tongue--a
signal, I imagined, that the meal was ready, an opinion in which I
was confirmed by seeing him expel from his mouth the lump of tobacco
which is never dispensed with except for the purpose of eating. As soon
as the lamb had been removed from the fire, and the scorched fleece
had been torn off, the carcase was cut up and distributed rapidly in
allotted rations. The children gnawed away greedily at their portions,
but the elders had knives with which, close to their lips, they cut off
morsels of the lump, which was held, one end in the left hand, and the
other between their teeth.
Besides the flesh of animals, of which the favourite parts are the
entrails and the brains, the Korannas take meal-pap, boiled gourds,
and milk; but they hold fish, crabs, and mollusks generally in utter
abhorrence. In this respect they are like most of the tribes in the
interior, although along the sea-coast many natives have been known
who for a long period have subsisted upon fish as the chief article of
their diet.
The whole neighbourhood doubtless abounds with many rare species of
animals. The valleys, with their rich tropical vegetation, the marshes
contiguous to the river, the densely wooded banks, the river-bed, alike
where it is stony and where it is muddy, must all be equally prolific;
but I am sorry that I had no leisure to make proper investigation. My
stay at Klipdrift was necessarily very short, and I could only get
a superficial acquaintance with the environs as we hurried through
them. But the place is like an oasis in the bare monotony of the
South African highland, and would be sure to yield a rich harvest to
any naturalist who could linger there for some time. Even during my
rapid transit I observed several interesting kinds of falcons and
sparrow-hawks, as well as owls of different sorts, horned owls, dwarf
owls, and owls whose special haunts seemed to be hills, and trees,
and swamps. I noticed, likewise, several distinct varieties of crows,
and in the thickets on the river-bank and near the farms I reckoned
no less than five different species of starlings, two of which, one
quite small, the other larger with a long tail, struck me as being very
pretty. Shrikes abounded, but were even surpassed in numbers by the
granivorous song-birds, amongst which were several of the long-tailed
finches. Thrushes and other insectivorous birds, such as the wagtail
and the reed-sparrow, were likewise to be seen. Of the woodpecker tribe
I only noticed two examples, but I saw several of the sun-birds, and
a kind of bee-eater, as well as two sorts of kingfishers and cuckoos.
Swallows and a kind of goat-sucker were occasionally seen skimming
along; and in addition to all these there were representatives of
nearly all the feathered races of South Africa, especially of the
doves, lesser bustards, plovers, ducks, and divers.
Amongst the reptiles, three kinds of land-tortoises were frequently
to be turned up between the stones in the hills; they were the common
tortoise, the common South African tortoise, and another of a flat
shape, with square green marks in the middle of its shell.
Of fish I observed five species, one of which, the South African
silurus, with its flat smooth head, is found as far north as the other
side of the Zambesi in fresh water as well as in the salt-pans and the
salt rivers.
In the neighbourhood of Klipdrift I made an exchange which seemed to
me advisable. I bartered four of my horses for a team of six oxen,
and although I was a pecuniary loser by the transaction, I could not
be otherwise than satisfied when the bargain was concluded, as the
horse disease, which rages every year, had broken out in the district,
and I had observed several carcasses bleaching in the sun. Had it not
been for this disease, I could have obtained a far better price for my
horses, but under the circumstances the owner of the oxen hesitated
long before he would entertain the proposal for exchange at all. He
assured me that I should find the whole six to be quiet and docile, and
all that draught-oxen ought to be; however, I soon discovered that two
of them were so wild as to be almost unmanageable. My change of team
consequently involved me in engaging two additional black servants--one
to lead the foremost of the three pairs, another to urge them on by the
free use of the whip.
I had no difficulty in finding what I required. In the Koranna
village, one of my companions had fallen in with a German, who had
taken up his residence there, and I applied to him to inquire among
the natives for a couple of strong young men, who would come up the
country with me for a few weeks. In the course of the day he brought
me a Koranna lad of about sixteen, and a Koranna half-breed, named
Gert, both of whom professed themselves ready to engage themselves to
me for the work I wanted. I was to pay them at the rate of 8_s._
6_d._ a week each.
After laying in an adequate stock of tea, sugar, and meal, we
left Klipdrift, and, according to my scheme, proceeded northwards
towards the confluence of the rivers, to the district inhabited
by the western Batlapins--where I wished to explore the deserted
river-diggings--taking Gong Gong on the way. The country over which we
passed was a high table-land, wooded in parts, and dotted at intervals
with settlements, both of Korannas and Batlapins; it was slightly
undulated, and sloped sharply down on the west towards the Vaal.
A special interest, both to the sportsman and the naturalist, is
awakened by the fact that the district lying between the Harts and
Vaal Rivers is the first in which, approached from the south, herds of
the striped grey gnu (_Catoblepas Gorgon_) are to be seen. By the
Boers called “the blue wildebeest,” and by the Bechuanas known as the
“kokon,” this animal ranges northwards all over the Orange Free State,
and beyond the Zambesi. It is, although larger, less wild than the
black or common gnu, and its horns are of a different shape, being bent
downwards and forwards, more like those of our own shorthorns. Huntsmen
distinguish the two species by the colour of their tails; the black
gnus have white tails, whilst the blue-grey gnus can be recognized at
a great distance by their black tails, and by the black stripes on
the upper and front parts of their bodies. They must rank with the
springbock and blessbock gazelles, in being the most common game on the
treeless plains, from the western region of Cape Colony as far as lat.
23° north.
Late in the afternoon we turned into a small glen, at its opening into
the Vaal valley. A few little canvas huts, and some tents, could be
seen peeping gracefully from the dark green foliage, and constituted
all that now remained of the once flourishing town of Gong Gong.
Hence we proceeded still northwards. Some white specks in the
distance, on the steep rocky cliffs overhanging the Vaal, marked the
sites of New Kierke Rush, and other places that a few years since had
been the prosperous settlements of the river-diggings. The journey
from Gong Gong to Delportshope, which is about a mile from the mouth
of the Harts, was one of the most uncomfortable that I have ever made
in a bullock-waggon, and I was at a loss to comprehend how, in the
flourishing times of the diggings, such a road could have sufficed for
the requirements of a population of some thousands. It was no better
than the channel of a boulder-stream, and travelling along it was
equally difficult and painful. No sooner had one of our back wheels,
by the combined efforts of the six oxen goaded on mercilessly by the
driver’s whip, been dragged out of a hole left by a rain-pool, than
one of the front wheels would come in contact with a huge stone a foot
high, which it was impossible to surmount. To add to our difficulties,
the oxen began to be restive, and to get beyond control; and so violent
was the jolting, that my barometer was ruined. It was not surprising
that the journey occupied about three times as long as we had
calculated; nor was it much consolation to perceive, from the fragments
of broken waggons which we passed, that others before us had fared even
worse than ourselves.
[Illustration: BATLAPIN BOYS THROWING THE KIRI.
_Page 109._]
My attention was for a while diverted from my own affairs, by meeting
a Batlapin carrying a leveret, and the “kiri” with which he had
killed it. This is a very favourite weapon of both the Zulus and the
Bechuanas. It is generally made of wood, but amongst the northern
Bamangwato it is sometimes formed of rhinoceros horn; it varies from
a foot to a yard in length, having at one end a knob, either plain or
carved, as large as a hen’s egg, or occasionally as large as a man’s
fist. In hand to hand conflicts it is a very effectual and deadly
weapon, but it is chiefly used for hunting, and is hurled, by some
tribes, with a marvellous precision. It was with the “kiri” that the
Matabele Zulus dashed in the skulls of the male adult population of the
rebel Makalaka villages.
The country now sank gradually toward the Harts River, and the valley
lay broad and open, bounded on the far north by the N’Kaap, the rocky
and wooded slope of the highland. The scenery at the confluence of the
rivers had always been described to me as pretty, but I found that the
term was only comparative, the district of Griqualand West appearing to
me singularly deficient in natural beauty.
After rushing on their way from the south in numerous rapids, the
waters of the Vaal here subside into a broad muddy channel, and flow
peacefully on to the mouth of the Harts River, which comes from the
north-east. Just before the streams unite, the Vaal makes a sudden turn
to the west, and so flows on for a little distance, when it bends away
in a south-south-west direction. Where it makes this last bend, the
bank of the river is swampy and overgrown by trees, and is the haunt
of wild cats, lynxes, and other beasts of prey, besides herds of wild
swine.
The southern portion of the right-hand bank is a fertile plain,
though it is only close to the river-mouth that trees grow to any
considerable size. The upper layer is loam upon a substratum of clay.
The opposite shore of the Harts River is much higher, rising in a rocky
cliff composed of stratified schist, underlying chalk-beds poor in
fossils, and forming the table-land connected with the N’Kaap. This
highland descends abruptly to the Vaal River, just above the bend, and
is intersected by a glen which lies above 300 yards from the mouth of
the Harts River, but which must not be confounded with the Klippdachs
grotto, discovered by Hübner. Formerly both shores on the lower part
of the river were in the possession of the Batlapin chief, Yantje, who
resides at Likatlong, three miles from the right bank, and now receives
an annual payment of 200_l._, as a dependent of the British
Government.
[Illustration: BATLAPIN.]
Beneath some fine spreading trees at the bottom of the glen our eyes
were refreshed by the verdure of a luxuriant sward, whereon we could
watch the gambols of the jumping-hares, gazelles, rock-badgers, and
wild ducks. The cackle of a chenalopex, a kind of goose, could be
heard as it roosted in the foliage above our heads; and the rushing
sound of a waterfall in the upper part of the glen enhanced the charm
of this retired nook. The stream was almost hidden by the bushes,
laden with berries, with which it was overhung; and its banks, which
were of sandstone, with an upper stratum of limestone, were hollowed
out into little grottoes. In the winter season, no doubt, it would
be quite dried up, but now it contributed a beautiful feature to the
landscape. My delight in finding this charming spot was complete when,
at the bottom of the ravine, I discovered a thick layer of fossils of
the latest alluvial period, amongst which I picked out a species of
tiger-snail.
On one of the trees that overhung the glen I noticed an enormous nest,
which at first I imagined must be an ape’s; but I subsequently learnt
that it belonged to the hammerhead (_Scopus umbretta_), one of
the largest nest-builders of the feathered tribe. The bird is about
eighteen inches high, and is distinguished by its fine brown plumage,
and a long tuft at the back of its head. It generally builds in the
forks of trees that overhang precipices or rivers, although it not
unfrequently makes selection of the clefts of a rock. The nest may be
described as a truncated cone, inverted. It varies very much in height,
being sometimes a yard, although sometimes only half as much, from its
lower circumference to its upper, which is often as much as six or
seven feet. It is a structure equally commodious and substantial; it is
entered by an aperture in the side, something less than a foot square,
and its interior is generally found to contain a number of bones. Twigs
are the chief material of its construction.
This exquisite little spot, so contrasted in its character with its
surroundings, might almost fairly be compared to a diamond hidden in
rubble. It must be owned, however, that it was a paradise infested
with snakes. I found no less than seven different species, amongst
which were two of the cobras that are common throughout South Africa.
The first of these I encountered as I was lifting a great stone in
search of insects. I did not observe it for some moments, my attention
being drawn to a mouse’s nest that I had uncovered; but a sunbeam
glanced through the foliage, and revealed to me the glistening body
of the venomous reptile. Having no weapon at hand, it seemed to me
that my most prudent course was to wait quietly for the cobra to make
an escape, before I began rummaging the mouse’s nest for insects. I
had not to wait long, as, aroused by the warmth of the sun’s rays
thus suddenly admitted, it begun to uncoil itself, displaying a body
some four feet in length. It quickly caught sight of me, and, in the
well-known cobra fashion, having erected about a third of its length it
began to hiss violently, the dark neck all the while becoming greatly
inflated, and the forked tongue quivering with ominous menace. However,
it did not attack me; and something in my attitude, I suppose, making
it forebode danger to itself, it presently turned away, and disappeared
in the bushes.
Of all the poisonous snakes in South Africa I consider three of
the cobras--a green sort, a black, and a yellowish--to be the most
venomous. Instances have been known of the first two of these species
making an unprovoked attack upon human beings. One case happened within
my own knowledge. A party of Kaffir children were playing near some
bushes, about a hundred yards from the huts where they lived, when
they caught sight of a cobra creeping towards them. Being aware of
its venomous character, they ran away from the bushes with all speed
into the road, where, thinking themselves secure, they slackened
their speed. Suddenly one of the children uttered a piercing scream.
Unperceived, the cobra had followed him, and bitten his heel; in a
quarter of an hour the child was dead.
The dingy yellow cobra of the warmer and more northerly parts of
Central South Africa, often to be seen in the mapani-woods of the
Sibanani plains, exhibits the murderous propensity of its race in
another fashion.[3] It will choose a spot where two mapani-trees with
their bushy tops over-arch a track by which the wild cattle pass on
their way to drink, and rolling its tail firmly round a bough, will
let its body hang suspended, straight as an assegai, ready to make its
attack at the proper instant. Unlike the green or the black species,
its colour is so nearly identical with the tints of the foliage that it
is very likely to be unobserved, and, consequently, Europeans may be
exposed to a danger against which it is difficult to guard.
Just after my rencontre with the cobra in the glen, on the same day,
one of the black boys, who was looking for a dove which had been shot,
came running to me in a state of great excitement, and calling out, “A
slang, sir! a slang!” He had been startled by a cobra in the grass. All
the natives, except the Zulu magicians, or “medicine men,” are mortally
terrified at these reptiles.
Two days afterwards, while I was again exploring the bottom of the
glen, I shot one of the short black snakes that are known to the Dutch
farmers as “ringnecks,” on account of the white mark on their throat.
When I told a storekeeper in the neighbourhood that I had done so, he
related to me several anecdotes about the species, the particulars of
one of which was confirmed by my own subsequent observation. He told
me that a few months previously a farmer had noticed, when his cows
returned to the farmyard after grazing by the river-bank, that one of
them always came back an hour or more after the rest. As there was no
danger from wild beasts, it was not usual to have the cows watched;
but unable to understand what could be the reason of this habitual
lingering of one of the herd, he sent a servant to look. The man
soon came running back, shouting, “Bas, Bas, fat det rur!” (Master,
master, bring your gun! a ringneck is sucking your cow!). The farmer
called together some of his neighbours, and, hastening down to the
riverside, witnessed the curious sight of the snake coiled round one
of the hind legs of the cow, and while the animal continued to graze
quietly, sucking greedily at the udder. It was almost satiated, and
its body, like a great leech, was gradually loosening its hold. Before
the astonished spectators could take any measures to destroy it, it
had dropped off and disappeared in the grass; but the next day the
farm-servants managed to creep up, after it had had its fill, and
killed it without injury to themselves.
[Illustration: BATLAPIN AGRICULTURE.
_Page 116._]
In the interests of geographical science it was always my wish to
ascertain the depth of the various rivers I explored. Having no boat,
or other apparatus, my only resource in order to get the measurements
I wanted was to wade right into the streams. I persevered in doing
this wherever I could feel perfectly secure from the attacks of
crocodiles, until an adventure befell me which gave me such a distaste
for experiments of this kind that I abandoned them altogether. It
was a hazard that almost cost me my life. I was anxious to find a
fording-place for the waggon somewhere near our encampment by the Harts
River, which, where we were, was some twenty feet wide. After I had
found what appeared a suitable spot, where the shore was high and dry,
and the water only eighteen inches deep at the edge, I undressed, threw
my clothes across the stream to the opposite bank, and then proceeded
to wade through the water. At my very first step my foot sank into mud,
but I proceeded cautiously till I reached the middle of the stream. I
there found myself standing in two feet of mud and two feet of water,
and every farther step I took showed me only too plainly that the mud
was getting deeper and deeper, and that I could not reach the bottom.
I came to the conclusion that if matters should not improve, I must
turn back again; but when I tried to return I experienced unlooked-for
difficulty; I kept sinking lower and lower, till only my chin was above
the level of the water. To cry for help was of no avail; the waggon
in the encampment was much too far away to allow me to be heard. I
became quite aware of the peril of my position, but I had only my
own exertions on which to rely. With a violent jerk I flung myself
forward, spreading out my arms as if I were swimming; the effort
brought my body to the upper surface of the mud, but my chest and mouth
were under water. I managed, however, by another spring to extricate
one of my legs from the slime; but as I was in imminent danger of
being suffocated I had to pause, to raise my head above water to draw
breath. There was not an instant to be lost if I were to maintain the
advantage I had gained, and with one desperate effort more I succeeded
in liberating my other foot. Happily I had just strength enough left to
enable me to grasp the soil of the opposite shore, and ultimately to
drag myself on to dry land. My state, both of mind and body, needs no
description.
We remained in our halting-place for several days, before proceeding
up the Harts River valley on our way to Likatlong.