e long whip is then brought down with a neat flip on the flank of some
refractory animal who is hanging back, and out of whose hide a strip of
several inches in length is thus taken.

A shout at Englishman--generally so named from being the most obstinate
in the team--Zwartland, Wit Kop, etcetera, is followed by a steady pull
all together, and the waggon moves off. When the driver has flogged a
few more of the oxen to let off his superfluous anger, he mounts on the
waggon-box, and exchanges his long whip for a short strip of
sea-cow-hide, called the "achter sjambok," with which he touches up
occasionally the two wheelers. Lighting his pipe, he then complacently
views the performance of his stud through its balmy atmosphere. Should
there be an ox so obstinate as to refuse to move on, or wish to lie
down, etc., who can paint the refined pleasure this same Hottentot
driver feels in thrashing the obstinacy out of the animal, or how entire
is his satisfaction as he kicks the poor brute in the stomach, and raps
him over the nose with the yokes-key, or twists his tail in a knot, and
then tears it with his teeth. Martin's Act is a dead letter in Africa.

A few days in Graham's Town were quite enough to satisfy my curiosity;
in this part of the world, the sooner one gets beyond the
half-civilisation the better.

I joined two friends, and started for Fort Beaufort, a day's ride
distant. I was much amused at the cool manner in which our dinner was
provided at the inn on the road. "What will you have, gentlemen?" was
asked: "beef, a turkey, or--" "Turkey roast I vote," said one, in answer
to the landlord's question. "Piet!" cried the landlord, "knock over
that turkey in the corner."

"Ja bas," answered a Hottentot servant. A log of wood flew at the
turkey's head indicated, and, with unerring aim, he was knocked over,
plucked, drawn, and roasted in about an hour and a half, and was very
good and tender.

The frontier of the Cape colony is a very wild and rather barren
district, and in many parts there is a scarcity of water and verdure.
At certain seasons of the year quail come in abundance, thirty or forty
brace for one pair of barrels being by no means an uncommon bag. One or
two of the bustard tribe are also found here, and are called the
_diccop_, _coran_, and _pouw_. I saw but little game besides those
creatures which I have just mentioned, as we were at war with the
Amakosa tribes, and it was not prudent to vent