aked
away overwhelmed with disappointment. Then the old man slowly lifted
his head, rose, congratulated himself, and returned home in a thankful
state of mind.

Although lions had finally taken themselves off, and retired to safer
and more distant retreats, the mountain glens of the neighbourhood were,
as I have already said, still inhabited by leopards of large size and
dangerous temper.

"They are powerful and savage fellows," said my friend, as he rose to
inspan, "and few men like to face them unless assisted by a party, and
with good dogs. One friend of mine, a doctor, used to boast that he
could stare a leopard out of countenance. At last one was caught in a
trap, and the doctor tried the experiment, but only got knocked over and
his nose scratched for his pains. There was a curious instance, once,
of a Fingo going mad in consequence of being bitten by a leopard. The
madness took the form of his feigning to be a leopard, and there was no
doubt as to his insanity, for he continually growled and scratched and
snapped with his teeth, and finished off by jumping through a glass
door.--Now then, the cart's ready; in you go."

I jumped in, and off we went again over the sweet-scented plain,--now on
a good bit of road, now on a bad; often forsaking the track altogether,
and occasionally plunging into holes that knocked our heads against the
hood, and tried our springs to the uttermost, till evening at last found
us among the hills, where a rough-and-ready inn afforded us shelter for
the night.

Passing through Somerset we came to a place named Cookhouse Drift, where
there is a bridge over the Great Fish River.

We also met here with seven troopers of the frontier, armed and mounted
police, as tight and serviceable a set of young fellows as one could
wish to see--clad in corduroy, thorough-going, rough-and-ready colonial
cavalry--and well-trained to bush fighting. They were out after seven
escaped convicts, and had caught one, a big Kafir, who was handcuffed,
and seemed sulky when I looked at him.

At another place, where the prickly pear was very prolific, and the bush
so dense that it formed a pretty safe retreat to escaped convicts, as
well as baboons and tigers, we discovered a band of Kafirs celebrating a
wedding.

The prickly pears, which were ripe at this time, we found to be very
pleasant and refreshing, but we had to handle them with care, as they
were covered with prickles so fine that they pierced