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in the worship of their forefathers, but in a dangerous and unpleasant way. I was once shooting-now many years ago-when I was a raw emigrant, and still what Natalians call a "Jimmy," and vulgar Americans a "Mick." I noticed the high grass, which was everywhere above my head, laid in one direction in a narrow trail, evidently left by the passage of somebody or something; and believing that by following this I would arrive at an easy opportunity for distinguishing myself as a sportsman, I turned on to and pursued the "spoor." After a few minutes I came suddenly out upon a small open glade of short grass on the margin of a deep spruit. But my first step from the tambookie grass was arrested by the formidable appearance of an enormous snake, the forepart of whose body was entirely raised from the ground, and whose expanded crest and glaring eyes were within two feet of my own. My gun was loaded with but a single bullet. I was too close to the brute to bring it to the shoulder; so I stood with it in the capping position, watching for an opportunity to make effectual use of what I at once conceived to be my only chance of safety—my one shot. There are people who deny the existence of snakemesmerism. All I can say is this, that my eyes became fixed on his almost involuntarily, and accompanied every movement of his graceful head and neck, which were continually and without apparent effort, and without my being able to connect the movements one with the other, changing their place appearing each instant at different points right or left, but always close to me, and higher than my breast. The feeling of astonishment and disgust with which I had at first regarded the reptile utterly left me. His eyes seemed to my bewildered senses to grow larger and larger. Gleaming in every tint of opal and carbuncle, they appeared to spread from the size of a shilling to that of a saucer, and then suddenly seemed to pervade all space, while I could still feel my head swaying from side to side as the snake's did. Suddenly something-I know not what-broke the spell. The eyes disappeared, sight returned to me, and I saw the brute's body vanishing over a rock into the streambed. I rushed forward to hurl stones at him; but judge of my astonishment when I found he had no tail. His body

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terminated in a stump, like an amputated leg. He was about eleven feet long, and as thick as my own calf.

After this I fired at a buck which ran down to, and was killed at, the house of one Jury Potgieter. I then turned homewards, when, being pressed for an account of my doings, I told of the snake I had seen. Mr Alfred Wright, at whose place I was visiting, knew this remarkable snake well. The Kafirs would not allow any one to kill it. It was stated that the reptile years before had appeared in one of the Zulu kraals when they were burying a chief. An impulsive young barbarian struck at it with a battle-axe, amputating its tail. The elder Kafirs interfered, saying it was the "dead warrior come to see them." The snake recovered from its injuries, and was thenceforth sacred to the tribe-a branch of the Hlubi recently extinguished by the Natal Government. This monster has not, so far as I have heard, been since killed. He is particularly fond of honey, and is to be seen in the neighbourhood of Spion Kop, in the county of Weenen, a mountain where there are many nests of wild bees.

The Kafirs also believe in the existence of river and water spirits, to whose agency they attribute all deaths by drowning; and in witchcraft, to which they attribute all diseases to them otherwise inexplicable. They have plenty of folk-lore which is well worth collecting and preserving.

The superstition of the Bushmen and Hottentots is chiefly evinced by their dread of ghosts and their habit of listening with pleasure to pretty child-like fables of the loves and stratagems, the amusements, wanderings, and even political intrigues of the lower animals, amongst whom the jackal seems to be given the first place for cunning and intelligence. These tales have all something in common with those in use amongst the Irish and the Icelanders, and reminded me of that pretty conceit by which the wren is made out to be the king of birds, because, on one occasion of a competition for the sovereignty, he perched himself on the eagle's head, thereby getting higher up in the world than any of his companions. Some statesmen are said to rise in a somewhat similar way.

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CHAPTER XII.

OUR SPORTS AND TRAVELS.

When not to hunt-Horse-sickness-" Salted" horses-How to start properly-Whipping a lion-Bushcraft-A hunter killed--Diminution in game-Game or wild beasts-South African sportsmen-Snakes and swords-Wolves and dogs-How to choose horses-Via Delagoa BayThe mocking-bird-Stampeding.

I HAVE alluded elsewhere to the days when I was a raw, fresh immigrant, and liable to be sneered at by older colonists as a "Jimmy." I am even now so impressed with the magnitude of the follies which men similarly situated and equally ignorant of the facts of South African life are guilty of, that I will endeavour to save some at least of our visitors from errors which prove not only annoying, but sometimes even most expensive to hundreds of persons yearly.

Even lately I met three gentlemen who came out from England, travelling by sea and land to the Transvaal, a distance of over 9000 miles, for the sake of sport, and who had only succeeded in arriving at just that particular season of the year when their object was utterly unobtainable, except at the risk of not only very large sums of money, but of their own lives.

There is in Africa, and especially in the Transvaal, a close season, when the penalty for descending into the Bushveld in search of large game, or of penetrating to the north into the remoter grounds of the elephant-hunter, is not a fine of five or ten pounds, but the almost certain exposure of the traveller to fever and death. This season may generally be said to include the latter half of the spring, the whole of the summer, and not only the whole of the autumn, but also

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a few of the first days of winter. This sickly and dangerous season includes from the 1st of September to the 25th of May in nearly every year. It is, in the Bushveld and low country, not only a period of general unhealthiness and danger to man, but is also that during which the constant prevalence of horse-sickness adds to the danger, expense, and difficulty of the hunter. During, on the other hand, the whole of the actual winter, but little fear of either fever or horse-sickness need be entertained anywhere, save in the distant and less-shot-over districts north of the Limpopo, of which I know nothing but from hearsay.

Birds are to be got at all times everywhere in the Transvaal; but of these I do not intend to speak at any great length, as partridges and the like can be got cheaper and in greater profusion much nearer home. My remarks refer almost entirely to sea-cows and elephants, which are becoming year by year scarcer and more difficult to get at, and to buffaloes, koodoos, blue welderbeest (gnu), elands, blesbuck (several varieties of antelope), wild boars, and four-footed animals generally. No doubt, upon the Highveld good shooting is to be obtained, even during the rainy season, amongst the welderbeests, blesbucks, and springbucks; and an occasional shot may be got at a wolf or a jackal; but for all purposes of real sport, the low country and Bushveld must be the aim of the hunter. This being so, it is of course absolutely necessary that he should know when to visit and when to avoid the game country. Even the hardiest Boer will not venture the lives of himself, his cattle, and horses, in the low country during the sickly season.

The gentlemen to whom I have above referred arrived, after long travel and great expense, in Pretoria in December 1877. Thence, with a waggon and bullocks, they proceeded eastwards, shooting a fair amount of game (but not of the nobler and more dangerous sorts) on the Highveld, not very far from the village of Nazareth. The following rules had been given them for their guidance, to their adherence to which during the subsequent part of their journey, they have good reason to attribute their escape from low fever.

1. Never sit fishing or remain loitering by the banks of a stream after sunset.

2. Never sleep in low bottoms; always pitch your camp at least forty feet above the level of neighbouring waters. 3. Take necessary medicine regularly.

4. Begin the day with some refreshment, no matter how light.

They were told at the same time, that unless they purchased what are called "salted" horses-that is, animals which had recovered from the disease known by the very vague and general term of "horse-sickness," but which is really a fever, whose principal symptom seems to be violent pleuritis-they might find themselves at any time deprived, from this cause, of their animals. To guard against this sickness as they did not buy salted cattle-they were recommended never to permit their horses to bite grass or drink water until the morning mists, haze, or miasma, with which the low grounds are frequently covered, should have been first entirely dissipated, leaving the veld dry. The horses consequently should be fed at night, and only allowed to graze at will during the later and warmer parts of each day. This will be best effected by the English sportsman bringing proper nose-bags and head-stalls with him, by the use of which, with great care and attention, I have seen delicate and valuable animals preserved, where there were no stables, during very bad seasons. It is the general opinion that the poison causing the fever is to be found in the dew. It is certain that horses eating dew-wet grasses during the sickly season almost invariably die. This is so firmly believed that I have known both Dutchmen and Englishmen to wash carefully every blade of grass or sheaf of oats coming from the damp air before it was admitted into their stables; and I must certainly say that this safeguard has been followed by good results.

That there is something in the dew and miasma theory can be readily gathered from this fact: "imported horses," when properly stabled, and not allowed out except during the later and warmer hours of the day, seem very frequently to escape the disease altogether; but to an imported animal so kept, one single night's absence from shelter during the unhealthy time will always prove fatal. So much for unsalted horses. With regard to the "salted" ones, or those

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