n as they knew that they were to be of the party they seemed
to have become frantic, going through the actions of hunting and
spearing wild beasts--knocking down birds with their kiris, which they
threw with unerring aim--pantomimically fighting lions, one of them
roaring and imitating the fierce creature's "oomph, oomph," in a way
that sounded terribly real, while the other threatened him with his
assegai.

Then they were always showing their cleverness as hunters by stalking
people--crawling up to them through the long grass, taking advantage of
every irregularity of the ground or shrub to get nearer, and grinning
with delight on seeing the surprise and fear of the person stalked.

For it was only during the past year that they had been so much amongst
the settlers in Natal. Their early days had been spent with their tribe
in the north, their father being a redoubtable chief; but he had given
great offence to the king, and had been compelled to fly for his life,
finding refuge amongst the English, with his boys.

Mention has been made of well-salted horses, which to a sailor would
immediately suggest commissariat beef in pickle in good-sized tubs; but
pray don't imagine that the satisfactory condiment, salt, has anything
to do with a salted horse in South Africa. A salted horse is one that
is seasoned to the climate by having passed through the deadly horse
sickness, a complaint so bad and peculiar to the land that very few of
the horses seized with it recover. When one does recover he is called a
salted--that is, seasoned--horse, and his value is quadrupled.

Mr Rogers had spared no expense in getting together good cattle. His
team of little Zulu oxen were the perfection of health and strength, and
far more docile than is generally the case with these animals; though
even these, in spite of their good behaviour, were exceedingly fond of
tickling each other's ribs with their long horns, and saving the driver
trouble, for the pair nearest the waggon would stir up the pair in front
of them, and as these could only retaliate on their aggressors with
their tails, they took their revenge on the pair in front; these again
punished the pair in front; and so on, and on, to the leading oxen, the
result of the many applications being a great increase of speed.

Then the horses were excellent. Mr Rogers had three for his own
riding; a big bay, a dark grey, and a soft mouse-coloured chestnut, more
famous for speed than b