Our Bushmen Wished To Leave Us, And, As There Was No Use In Trying To Thwart
These Independent Gentlemen, I Paid Them, And Allowed Them To Go.
The Payment, However, Acted As A Charm On Some Strangers
Who Happened To Be Present, And Induced Them To Volunteer Their Aid.
The game hereabouts is very tame.
Koodoos and giraffes stood gazing at me
as a strange apparition when I went out with the Bushmen.
On one occasion a lion came at daybreak, and went round and round the oxen.
I could only get a glimpse of him occasionally from the wagon-box;
but, though barely thirty yards off, I could not get a shot. He then began
to roar at the top of his voice; but the oxen continuing to stand still,
he was so disgusted that he went off, and continued to use his voice
for a long time in the distance. I could not see that he had a mane;
if he had not, then even the maneless variety can use their tongues.
We heard others also roar; and, when they found they could not
frighten the oxen, they became equally angry. This we could observe
in their tones.
As we went north the country became very lovely; many new trees appeared;
the grass was green, and often higher than the wagons; the vines
festooned the trees, among which appeared the real banian (`Ficus Indica'),
with its drop-shoots, and the wild date and palmyra, and several other trees
which were new to me; the hollows contained large patches of water.
Next came water-courses, now resembling small rivers,
twenty yards broad and four feet deep.
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