the habits and
customs of the simple people among whom they had strayed. None of the
Bechuanas appeared to have the slightest wish to go away from the place
they had chosen for a permanent home. To them it afforded tranquillity,
and that was all that could be said of it, for it afforded little
besides. That was all they required. Not one of them seemed afflicted
with ordinary human desires. They had no ambition, no curiosity, no
love of wealth,--none of those wants that render wretched the lives of
civilised people.

A place less suited for the abode of men could scarce have been found,
or even imagined. The soil was sterile, unproductive, and rarely
visited by game worthy of being hunted. The few roots and other
articles of food they were enabled to raise, furnished but a precarious
subsistence.

So limited was their supply of ordinary utensils, that even the most
trifling article was in their eyes valuable, and anything given them by
their guests was received with a gratitude scarce conceivable. They had
discovered the art of living in peace and happiness, and were making the
most of the discovery.

From what they were told by the villagers, our travellers could not
expect to get out of the karroo in less than two days, and no water
could be obtained along the route. But, as their cattle were now well
rested, they were not so apprehensive, and after a friendly leave-taking
with the Bechuanas, they once more continued their journey.

The trouble they had given to their simple hosts was remunerated without
much cost. A glass bottle that had once contained "Cape Smoke," was
thought by the latter to be of greater value than a gun; and, taking
their circumstances into account, they were perhaps not far astray in
their estimate.

CHAPTER FORTY NINE.

SCENES SELDOM VISITED.

Knowing that the longer they should be in reaching the next
watering-place the weaker their cattle would become, our travellers
strove to perform more than half the distance in less than half the
time. On their first day's journey after leaving the kraal, they went
about twenty-five miles; but on starting the next day they saw that not
more than half that distance was likely to be accomplished, and that
their principal work would consist in plying the jamboks.

Towards noon they came upon a tract of country, the greater portion of
which had once been flooded with brackish water, and was now slightly
incrusted with salt. The ref