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nibus always at hand, to prevent the necessity of the slightest chance of exposure to weather, or even a salutary walk-is not quite the mode of bringing up likely to produce a second lot of Waterloo men. Doubtless thousands of those brave men never saw a hound in their lives, and would no more have thought of riding at an ox-fence than they would of jumping the Serpentine themselves. This did not arise from want of courage, but from want of being used to show it in this particular way; still they shewed it in some other way. Let me see a man follow ANY manly athletic pursuit, I set him down as a manly fellow; but a mere railroad, omnibus young gentleman had better pray that both may always last for his convenience; otherwise, as he would be unable to ride in any other way, and from want of practice equally unable to walk, he would be obliged to do what perhaps would be the wisest thing for him to do-stay at home; then there would be little chance of danger, none of fatigue, and none of his delicate, tender person being exposed to hard knocks, which in some way a man addicted to field sports, or indeed any manly pleasure or occupation, is sure, more or less, to meet with so much the better, they do him good. May such men go on and prosper!

A DAY'S SPORT IN SOUTH AFRICA.

BY VENATOR.

It was full half an hour ere our jests and laughter welcomed back Doubleitt to the scene of his discomposure; and, for that matter, it was as long before our routed followers could be collected. And then for an hour we lingered in the already lengthening shade of the mimosas, comforting ourselves with sundry refreshments, in the shape of cold ham, anchovies, and claret, and fighting the recent battle over again, more at large than I have narrated it; while our attendant imps, under the superintendence of a baboon-visaged Hottentot named Adonis, robbed our defunct foe of his spoils.

We were in the saddle again at last, rejoicing that the sport had begun in earnest, and wishing it might continue. But even where lions are thickest, they are seldom to be met with three at a time, as Doubleitt did the tigers; so we had to whisper "Patience!" to our souls, and resign ourselves to the prospect of seeing no more that day. However, it was not so decreed. As we wound, after a while, down the brown side of a mountain into one of those beautiful valleys in South Africa, which imagination would fain picture with nymphs and satyrs, a dark object began to move from the grass beside an aloe, which had just shot up into a dozen spear-like heads, ready to burst into full blossom.

"A wolf!" cried Doubleitt, raising his gun on the instant.

"A weir-wolf, then!" exclaimed Grattan, striking up the barrel as he fired. "No beast of prey rests in the sunshine. I tell you your gun has a fancy for a human victim."

Lord have mercy upon me!" ejaculated the heedless boaster; "who would have thought it was a man! I remember once-"

But though uninterrupted, the rash, though good-natured, romancer was too greatly shocked by what he had nearly done to be able to improvise one of his usual dreaded extravaganzas. His intended target rose, at our approach, from the earth whereon he had been basking in the fiery rays which the native of a colder climate would have shunned, presenting to our view a tall, athletic, young Kafir, who most probably carried his entire wardrobe on his back, being a sheep-skin kaross or cloak, fastened on one shoulder with the most elegant negligence. He was a fine-looking youth however, scanty attire and sable complexion notwithstanding; and made himself exceedingly interesting in our eyes. by his welcome relation of a lion having made his midnight meal off a straggling bullock on a neighbouring flat the night before. He had heard him roar in exultation over his prey, had seen the mangled remains that morning; and moreover beheld, in the clear moonlight, the hunter on his return from the repast in which the chase had ended, pass near the tree up which the Kafir prudently had climbed.

"Ask him, Kobus, if he will guide us to the spoor; and he shall choose what we shall give him," said Grattan, to the half-Kafir who acted as interpreter.

The dark eyes of the savage gleamed brightly when these words were explained to him; and instantly their gaze was rivetted on Grattan's accoutrements, while he answered in that strange guttural language which has so few students, possibly because the initiatory process consists in turning one's tongue back into his throat, like an outlawed victim of the Frane courts.

"He says de sur must give him powder and balls, dat he may go shoot the buffalo and de hartie beestie," interpreted Kobus.

But W

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shook his head gravely. "Those promises to the half of my kingdom' are too regal for us. There are traders enough to carry ammunition into Kafirland without our help. Tell him his assigais can kill him plenty of game; but that he shall have a jacket like yours, Kobus, or any other clothes he fancies. He does not appear to have too much credit with his tailor."

The bargain was struck, and our guide elevated on one of the led horses; which, greatly to Lewis Hay's admiration, he rode easily and gracefully without saddle or bridle, a thong tied round the creature's neck being the only apology for a rein.

Splendid fellow, splendid!" said our little friend; who entertained a short man's respect for six feet two's and three's. "I should like that Kafir for a groom."

"To wake some morning and find all your four-footed property had levanted into Kafirland," commented Grattan.

"No, no! he is far too fine a fellow to be a thief. I like his countenance; there is in it a something—"

"A something glum, certainly," supplied Forbes Grattan. "Perhaps he has been turned out of the kraal for confounding meum and tuum."

But from Kobus, who held discourse with his semi-countryman, we received an account of existing circumstances far more consonant with the savage dignity of our new acquaintance. The poor fellow was in

* Kafir village.

love; or, at least, weary of single blessedness, yet unable to enter the perilous state of matrimony, from being too poor to buy himself a wife.

Then the colony will have to furnish the purchase-money," said W—. “ I dare say he is on the look-out for it now. It is well for Mynheer Ficher that his cattle have escaped the lover's clutches."

Hay, Doubleitt, and myself inveighed loudly against the illiberality of our companions. "What right had they to deny any one the possession of honour, honesty, or heart, because his skin was black, and his customs were unlike our own? Might not Kafirs have feelings like other men?" &c., &c., &e.

A shout from Kobus cut short our reproaches. The spoor was found, and Othello's occupation was come back. There was animation, and chattering in voices soft and shrill and rough, and faces black and white lit up with joy, as though none of them would be turned from the eagerly-sought encounter. On the borders of a vlei (or pond), whose rapidly-shrinking waters left day by day a line of mud around them for the sun to bake dry and hard, we found the stiffening foot-marks; and thence far along the dusty plain their track was visible. Onward we hastened, all hands impatient for the fray; our Kafir guide even betraying every intention of waiting to see the fun. We were brought up by a precipice from brow to base, well nigh as perpendicular as many a wall. Cavities and fissures in the rock there were, and here and there an inequality jutting forth; but foot of white man, aye, or of Hottentot or Kafir, would vainly strive to scale it, even if urged by the most deadly terror. Yet a little on one side the face of the precipice was so broken that possibly our chase had contrived to scramble down it; at least the Kafir maintained that he could distinguish more than one trace of feet upon the ground beneath, while a darker streak along the tall, rank grass, which fringed the edge of a dark hollow near the spot, appeared to us all to indicate the passage of some large animal. This hollow, filled with grass and bushes, and a few trees lifting up their heads to see what was passing in the world without, might well be singled out by the lion for his retreat during the sultry hours of day. But he might have left it; and it would be a long détour ere we could hope to descend and reconnoitre, which made Hay's proposition of endeavouring to dislodge him the more welcome to us all.

A stone, weighty as two men could lift, was torn from its comfortable bed, and whirled far into the air, and down into that wild hollow to explore its hidden depths. With a dull, heavy sound it fell. How we hung over the brink of the cliff in expectation! A few seconds, and the lion emerged from his concealment; stalking slowly along the path he had already trodden down through the grass. On gaining the level ground, he stretched himself out; and, raising his head, made the hills and rocks re-echo far and wide with a terrific roar. He then took a leisurely survey of the heights by which he was surrounded. The moment his eye fell upon us, perched high on our rocky fastness, there was a change in his demeanour; he shook back his mane, lashed his sides furiously with his tail, and appeared, as one might say, to be gathering himself up for combat. It seemed dastardly to take a mean advantage of the noble animal, and slay him from where we stood, so utterly beyond his reach. This feeling stayed our hands, and for some moments no gun was raised against him; when, to our amazement,

he uttered a deep growl, and bounded along the base of the cliff towards our left.

"He flies!" "He is coming to meet us!" exclaimed Grattan and Doubleitt in duetto; but at the same instant a shrill cry from beneath, in the direction of the lion's course, drew every one to the very brink of the precipice, and revealed another aim. More than half way down the cliff, where, as I have said, it was least inaccessible, though one might have thought the baboon or the leopard could alone have found safe footing, hung Grattan's little bushman; who, unnoticed by any one, and himself heedless of our proceedings, had proved at once his inherent wildness, and the monkey-like attributes of his nature, by venturing down the cliff to examine the doubtful spoor. Rash as this would have been at any time, the danger now was trebled. The lion's attention was fixed on the trembling little creature; who, paralyzed by terror, clung to a projecting rock, and uttered piercing cries. More than one shot was fired hastily and uselessly as the lion bounded on, and we all hurried to the nearest point above the bushman's dizzy perch; but the lion was at the foot before us, and was already essaying the ascent. Yet to scale that precipice was no trifle even to him; or another minute would have ended all poor Windfogle's fears and sorrows. As it was, one half of his fierce foe's work was done; but the intervening space presented greater difficulty to overcome, for which he was straining every muscle, while the helpless little being but shrunk the closer to the powerless rock, and moved nor hand nor foot.

"Windfogle! Windfogle! rouse yourself, boy! Climb! You have time enough to escape him yet!" vociferated Grattan; half beside himself with horror at the situation of his faithful and favourite attendant.

"Loup, Windfogle, loup (spring)!" shouted Kobus; and twenty other directions and encouragements in Dutch and English were showered upon him, as all leaned far as we dared over the dizzy precipice to watch the fearful yet exciting scene.

Windfogle looked up at us, and urged by our entreaties stretched forth his hand to grasp a higher hold; but, glancing down again, he shrank back shuddering, nerveless, and now silent. Meanwhile our guns had not been idle; but though a ball or two struck the lion, they seemed but to sting him to greater fury, and increase the eagerness of his pursuit; while to hit a vital part we found impossible, for the bushman formed his shield. Several times did Hay, the best marksman of our party, raise his rifle; but as often lowered it, unable to cover any spot where his ball might tell, and now he waited intent and anxious for some more favourable moment. Every instant deepened the intensity of our powerful interest. There, his eyes glaring, his mouth half open, and the large rough tongue shining between the far-exposed teeth, was the wild monarch of the wilderness, clinging with cat-like dexterity by the fore-paws to a narrow ledge of rock, and striving with all his energy to bring up his hind feet, and prepare for the one spring which then would carry him to his victim; while but a few feet above him swung the seemingly childish form of little Windfogle, appealing to our pity, not merely by his peril, but by his diminutive size and overwhelming terror. The Hottentot, and yet more the far rarer bushman, is said to be the favourite prey of the lion; and certainly there seemed something of rattlesnake fascination in his influence over the tiny creature.

T

"Windfogle! Windfogle!" once more cried out Grattan; throwing over the cliff a rope of thongs, which we had quickly knotted together. "Catch the reim, boy; and we will draw you up. Don't look down, but catch the reim; come, quick!"

Thus abjured, Windfogle caught the thong; but cast, nevertheless, another glance below to see the lion, with a fierce growl, spring forward in that decisive bound he had so long been contemplating. At the same moment Hay fired, for a reserved shot then was useless; but though even grazing Windfogle's shoulder, it merely lodged in that of his foe, and hindered not his spring. Forward he darted; but in that very instant the bushman was swung clear of the rock on which he alighted. Yet quick as we might be, the lion might be quicker in pursuit; and where might that end? The thought was needless. The fragment of rock by which Windfogle had hung, too slightly embedded to bear the ponderous weight now cast upon it, gave way at once; and, rolling down, bore the lion with it to the foot of the precipice. Sullenly he rose, and gave himself a sulky shake; then, without turning a single look upon us, moved off leisurely in the direction opposite to his recent lair, a certain halt in his gait betraying that he had not come scathless through the contest. We gave him a parting volley, of which he took no heed; and in a few minutes he had passed beyond our sight.

So ended one of the wildest features of that eventful day's "sport" -it had nearly proved something else to Windfogle. And now, after a while, we were ready to start again; but looking round first for the Kafir to give him his promised reward, he was invisible. Generous youth! he had served us not for hire. Not he; but helped himself: for, taking advantage of the confusion, he had driven off no less than six of our horses, saddles and all (mine and Hay's among them), and, to say nothing of other burthens, leaving us one too few to mount our number -possibly considering poor Windfogle would have no further need of one. No one especially chronicles jokes against himself; so all our friends' merriment at the expense of Hay's and my own philanthropy, and the satisfaction we must feel in enabling our Kafir protégé to buy himself a wife (or two, perhaps, if they were going cheap at the kraal) shall here pass unrecorded. We gave the bushman for companion to the smallest Hottentot; and so went our way, talking so much of the past incident that we had little time to wish for fresh adventures.

An hour after this we met Tunis Beck, returning to the "outspan place." He had found the Hottentots, and they the cattle, minus one, whose fate we could suggest; and he was riding on to tell the Fichers. We were at no great distance from them; and Beck's report of the old man's having two or three tolerable horses that he might part with, induced us to bend our course that way; and, to do him justice, the young Dutchman evinced no fears to trust us once more in the presence of his lady love. His countrymen have little reserve on such subjects, and Beck took our raillery in great good part; talking much of his dear Katjee, and telling us that they were to be married in a few weeks after their return to the colony, and then they should be so happy. Only to hear him was enough to make one resolve to fall in love with the first pretty face that should welcome him back to civilization.

It was near sunset when we regained the heights overlooking the dell,

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