During the last twelve hours, I am free to confess, I was almost ravenous enough to eat my shoe-soles, and probably might have done so had time and opportunity permitted to boil them down to a jelly. Contrary to custom, the field we had traversed was destitute of eatables of any sort. Once, indeed, I observed a small antelope, but the animal only seemed to mock our sufferings, for, before I could level my piece, he vanished. Seeing the Bushmen try to appease their hunger with a bitter woody substance, I could not resist the temptation to taste it, though warned of the consequences; but scarcely had I masticated the first mouthful before I was seized with tormenting nausea and sickness.
From our great success on a former occasion at Tunobis, I expected to find full employment for my rifle on my arrival there. But, alas! now that we stood so much in need of animal food, not a wild beast was to be seen. At first, one might almost be led to imagine that the amazing number of animals congregated here less than two years before must be either killed or driven altogether away from the locality; but this was not the case. Water was still to be found in the vleys and pools at some distance, and, until these were exhausted, wild animals were little likely to visit a spot where they were subject to constant persecution.
One or two rhinoceroses, however, occasionally visited the fountains, as appeared by their tracks. These I determined to watch, while I dispersed my men over the adjoining country in search of game. One night a huge animal came waddling along, but, though I lodged a ball in its body, it was to no purpose. The men were equally unsuccessful, and returned, after several days’ absence, half starved, and, consequently, as ravenous as wolves. They had encountered several rhinoceroses, zebras, &c., but they only wounded or mangled the poor beasts. It seemed as if every gun, mine included, had been bewitched.
Tunobis, as often stated in the preceding pages, was the farthest easterly point which Galton and myself had attained in our journey toward the Ngami. Every inch of the ground ahead was now unknown to Europeans at least. The Bushmen, it is true, had furnished us with some information, but it was either too vague to be relied upon, or not applicable to the course I intended to pursue. Knowing nearly the position of the Lake, I was anxious to take as straight a line as possible; but, on consulting the few natives hereabout, they declared that, were I to do so, it would be certain destruction to myself and cattle, inasmuch as the “field” in that direction was one howling wilderness, totally destitute of water. By traveling southward, however, for a few stages along the sandy and dry water-course of Otjombindè, I should, they said, run no risk. I was quite at a loss to know how far I could depend on their information; but Piet, the interpreter, who had crossed the Kalahari in the beginning of the rainy season, having corroborated their story, I no longer hesitated to follow their advice.
Before finally quitting Tunobis, an incident occurred which bade fair to finish my career in this world. Cantering along one day in the bed of the River Otjombindè, with a view of ascertaining its course, I all at once found myself on the very verge of a pitfall! but it was too late, for at the moment I was about to rein in my horse, down we both went together, with a fearful crash, through the light net-work of sticks and grass that covered it, to the bottom of the gulf, which could not have been less than ten feet in depth, though happily without either of us breaking our necks.
This pitfall was specially intended for the giraffe, which abounded hereabout, and was very different in construction from those in use for elephants, rhinoceroses, and other large animals; for, instead of a single cavity, it was divided into two compartments, separated from each other by a wall of earth. Though I never before knew the meaning of this peculiar arrangement, it was soon explained. My horse, having recovered somewhat from his surprise and the stunning effects of the fall, plunged violently forward, and endeavored to leap the wall in question; but he only got his fore quarters over it, and the depth of the hole preventing him from touching the ground either with his fore or hind feet, his whole weight rested on his belly, and thus suspended between earth and heaven, he became totally helpless.
Seeing that the poor animal could not possibly live long in this position, and that I was too far from camp to return for assistance, I unhesitatingly sprang back into the pit from which I had just extricated myself, and placing my shoulders under his chest (my feet resting against the side of the pit to give me a better leverage), I exerted all my strength, and succeeded in pushing him back into the compartment in which he had been originally deposited. Finding that he was about to renew the plunge, I seized the bridle with my left hand and held his head forcibly down, while with my right hand, and by the aid of a stick that I picked up, I scraped away the soil on one side of the pit so that it became in a degree an inclined plane; with my feet I also so far leveled the wall that it formed a kind of platform. This matter being arranged, I laid myself on my back on the edge of the pit and pulled stoutly at the bridle. The horse understood me, for with a violent jerk of his body he sprang on to the platform, and next to the inclined plane, where for a moment he nearly lost his equilibrium, but at last successfully cleared the abyss.
PITFALLS.
The poor brute was so sensible of the danger he had escaped that, on finding himself on firm ground, he uttered a wild, half-suppressed neighing, or rather scream, and continued to tremble violently for several minutes. On examining him, I found he had sustained no farther injury than the loss of a few inches of skin and a quantity of hair. As for myself, I escaped with a violent twist of the neck, which inconvenienced me slightly for a few days.