cessful, although the whole party came near
perishing for want of water, and their cattle, which had been bitten by
the 'Tsetse', died.

This insect--the 'Glossina moritans' of the naturalists--deserves a
special paragraph. It is a brown insect about as large as our common
house-fly, with three or four yellow bars across its hinder part.
A lively, buzzing, harmless-looking fellow is the tsetse. Its bite
produces a slight itching similar to that caused by the mosquito, and
in the case of men and some species of animals no further ill effects
follow. But woe to the horse, the ox, and the dog, when once bitten by
the tsetse. No immediate harm appears; the animal is not startled as by
the gad-fly; but in a few days the eyes and the nose begin to run; the
jaws and navel swell; the animal grazes for a while as usual, but grows
emaciated and weak, and dies, it may be, weeks or months after. When
dissected, the cellular tissue seems injected with air, the fat is green
and oily, the muscles are flabby, the heart is so soft that the finger
may be pushed through it. The antelope and buffalo, the zebra and goat,
are not affected by its bite; while to the ox, the horse, and the dog
it is certain death. The mule and donkey are not troubled by it, nor are
sucking calves, while dogs, though fed upon milk, perish. Such different
effects produced upon animals whose nature is similar, constitute one of
the most curious phenomena in natural history.

Sebituane, who had heard of the approach of his visitors, came more
than a hundred miles to meet them. He was a tall, wiry, coffee-and-milk
colored man, of five-and-forty. His original home was a thousand miles
to the south, in the Bakwain country, whence he had been driven by the
Griquas a quarter of a century before. He fled northward, fighting his
way, sometimes reduced to the utmost straits, but still keeping his
people together. At length he crossed the desert, and conquered the
country around Lake Ngami; then having heard of white men living on the
west coast, he passed southwestward into the desert, hoping to be able
to open intercourse with them. There suffering from the thirst, he
came to a small well; the water was not sufficient for his men and his
cattle; one or the other must perish; he ordered the men to drink, for
if they survived they could fight for more cattle. In the morning his
cattle were all gone, and he returned to the north. Here a long course
of warfare awaited him, b