ke up.

"Is it your watch?"

"Yaw, Mynher," replied Big Adam, rolling out of his kaross.

"Well, then, you keep it so well, that you will have no tobacco next
time it is served out."

"Gentlemen all awake and keep watch, so I go to sleep a little," replied
Adam, getting up on his legs.

"Look to your fires, sir," replied the Major, walking to his wagon.

CHAPTER XXI.

As they fully expected to fall in with a herd of buffaloes as they
proceeded, they started very early on the following morning. They had
now the satisfaction of finding that the water was plentiful in the
river, and, in some of the large holes which they passed, they heard the
snorting and blowing of the hippopotami, to the great delight of the
Hottentots, who were very anxious to procure one, being very partial to
its flesh.

As they traveled that day, they fell in with a small party of Bushmen;
they were shy at first, but one or two of the women at last approached,
and receiving some presents of snuff and tobacco, the others soon
joined; and as they understood from Omrah and the Hottentots that they
were to hunt in the afternoon, they followed the caravan, with the hopes
of obtaining food.

They were a very diminutive race, the women, although very well formed,
not being more than four feet high. Their countenances were
pleasing,--that is, the young ones; and one or two of them would have
been pretty, had they not been so disfigured with grease and dirt.
Indeed the effluvia from them was so unpleasant, that our travelers were
glad that they should keep at a distance; and Alexander said to Swinton,
"Is it true that the lion and other animals prefer a black man to a
white, as being of a higher flavor, Swinton, or is it only a joke?"

"I should think there must be some truth in the idea," observed the
Major; "for they say that the Bengal tiger will always take a native in
preference to a European."

"It is, I believe, not to be disputed," replied Swinton, "that for one
European devoured by the lion or other animals, he feasts upon ten
Hottentots or Bushmen, perhaps more; but I ascribe the cause of his so
doing, not exactly to his perceiving any difference in the flesh of a
black and white man, and indulging his preference. The lion, like many
other beasts of prey, is directed to his game by his scent as well as by
his eye; that is certain. Now I appeal to you, who have got rid of these
Bushmen, and who know so well how odoriferous is t