imes either Hans or Hendrik would gallop up,
set the heads of the animals right again, and ply the "jamboks" upon
their sides.

This "jambok" is a severe chastener to an obstinate ox. It is an elastic
whip made of rhinoceros or hippopotamus skin,--hippopotamus is the
best,--near six feet long, and tapering regularly from butt to tip.

Whenever the led oxen misbehaved, and Swartboy could not reach them with
his long "voor-slag," Hendrik was ever ready to tickle them with his
tough jambok; and, by this means, frighten them into good behaviour.
Indeed, one of the boys was obliged to be at their head nearly all the
time.

A leader is used to accompany most teams of oxen in South Africa. But
those of the field-cornet had been accustomed to draw the wagon without
one, ever since the Hottentot servants ran away; and Swartboy had driven
many miles with no other help than his long whip. But the strange look
of everything, since the locusts passed, had made the oxen shy and wild;
besides the insects had obliterated every track or path which oxen would
have followed. The whole surface was alike,--there was neither trace nor
mark. Even Von Bloom himself could with difficulty recognise the
features of the country, and had to guide himself by the sun in the sky.

Hendrik stayed mostly by the head of the leading oxen. Hans had no
difficulty in driving the flock when once fairly started. A sense of
fear kept all together, and as there was no herbage upon any side to
tempt them to stray, they moved regularly on.

Von Bloom rode in front to guide the caravan. Neither he nor any of them
had made any change in their costume, but travelled in their everyday
dress. The field-cornet himself was habited after the manner of most
boers, in wide leathern trousers, termed in that country "crackers;" a
large roomy jacket of green cloth, with ample outside pockets; a
fawn-skin waistcoat; a huge white felt hat, with the broadest of brims;
and upon his feet a pair of brogans of African unstained leather, known
among the boers as "feldt-schoenen" (country shoes). Over his saddle lay
a "kaross," or robe of leopard-skins, and upon his shoulder he carried
his "roer"--a large smooth-bore gun, about six feet in length, with an
old-fashioned flint-lock,--quite a load of itself.

This is the gun in which the boer puts all his trust; and although an
American backwoodsman would at first sight be disposed to laugh at such
a weapon, a little knowledge of th