wder, and, if full,
it must have contained half-a-dozen pounds at least! A leopard-skin
pouch hanging under his right arm, a hunting-knife stuck in his
waist-belt, and a large meerschaum pipe through the band of his hat,
completed the equipments of the trek-boor, Von Bloom.

Hans and Hendrik were very similarly attired, armed, and equipped. Of
course their trousers were of dressed sheep-skin, wide--like the
trousers of all young boors--and they also wore jackets and
"feldt-schoenen," and broad-brimmed white hats. Hans carried a light
fowling-piece, while Hendrik's gun was a stout rifle of the kind known
as a "yager"--an excellent gun for large game. In this piece Hendrik
had great pride, and had learnt to drive a nail with it at nearly a
hundred paces. Hendrik was _par excellence_ the marksman of the party.
Each of the boys also carried a large crescent-shaped powder-horn, with
a pouch for bullets; and over the saddle of each was strapped the robe
or kaross, differing only from their father's in that his was of the
rarer leopard-skin, while theirs were a commoner sort, one of antelope,
and the other of jackal-skin. Little Jan also wore wide trousers,
jacket, "feldt-schoenen," and broad-brimmed beaver,--in fact, Jan,
although scarce a yard high, was, in point of costume, a type of his
father,--a diminutive type of the boor. Truey was habited in a skirt of
blue woollen stuff, with a neat bodice elaborately stitched and
embroidered after the Dutch fashion, and over her fair locks she wore a
light sun-hat of straw with a ribbon and strings. Totty was very
plainly attired in strong homespun, without any head-dress. As for
Swartboy, a pair of old leathern "crackers" and a striped shirt were all
the clothing he carried, beside his sheep-skin kaross. Such were the
costumes of our travellers.

For full twenty miles the plain was wasted bare. Not a bite could the
beasts obtain, and water there was none. The sun during the day shone
brightly,--too brightly, for his beams were as hot as within the
tropics. The travellers could scarce have borne them had it not been
that a stiff breeze was blowing all day long. But this unfortunately
blew directly in their faces, and the dry karoos are never without dust.
The constant hopping of the locusts with their millions of tiny feet
had loosened the crust of earth; and now the dust rose freely upon the
wind. Clouds of it enveloped the little caravan, and rendered their
forwar