Soon after lighting our cigars we left the tent and strolled about the premises. To begin with, the tents were the perfection of neatness in their interior arrangements, and our hostesses were evidently good housekeepers. The little odds and ends about the place had been arranged in the most tasteful fashion, and they were evidently deriving a good deal of comfort from their wandering home. The kraal where the oxen and horses were made secure at night was strong and substantial, and the cleanliness of the interior showed a great deal of energy on the part of somebody.
Mrs. Roberts told us that their manager was a very intelligent fellow, and came from one of the Boer settlements in the Orange Free State. When they started out with him his ideas of neatness and order were very vague; but he was a good-natured chap, and they had succeeded in instilling him with their enthusiasm on that subject. "It is a case of eternal vigilance," she added, "and it is necessary for us to go over the regulations with him pretty nearly every day in order to hold him up to his duties. He has been up-country several times before, and consequently we cannot instruct him much upon his general work. He has managed so well," she continued, "that we have lost only two oxen and not a single horse since we started."
I replied that they certainly ought to be proud of such a manager, as they had been more fortunate than we.
Just as I made this remark we came around to where two donkeys were tethered. As soon as the animals caught sight of the ladies they strained at their tethers and held up their heads to be patted.
"Those are evidently your riding-animals," Harry remarked.
"Yes, we ride them sometimes," said Miss Boland, "though not as often as we do our horses. We bought the donkeys partly in the belief that they would be useful, and partly as a lark. We have had lots of fun with them, as they are the first animals of their kind ever seen in this part of South Africa. The natives have looked at them in wonder, and have queried whether the creatures are horses, dogs, or lions. In one village we came to the whole population engaged in a fierce discussion on the subject. One of the wise men said the donkeys were a new kind of dogs which the foreigners had brought along. Another said they were not dogs, but horses, and he called attention to the creatures' hoofs. Just then one of the donkeys brayed, and the crowd jumped back in astonishment and terror, crying, 'It's a lion! It's a lion!'"
CHAPTER XVI.
SNAKE CUTLETS AND STEWS—MISS BOLAND STALKS A
GIRAFFE—OXEN FOR HUNTING-PURPOSES.
We had a good laugh over the young lady's story, and after finishing our stroll and getting back to the tent we asked for our horses, bade our entertainers good-by—not failing to remind them of our engagement for the morrow—and then mounted and headed for home.
We stopped at the place where we captured the snake, and found, as we expected, that our men had already arrived and were skinning the reptile. It was no easy piece of work, as the body of the serpent continued to squirm, although life was really extinct. The boa-constrictor is very much like the turtle in this peculiarity, and what might appear to be cruelty in skinning the animal alive was not really so. Our men made a very good job of it, and we remained until it was completed. They followed us home with the skin of the snake, and left the body for the jackals and anything else that cared to eat it.