ARRIVE AT THE BAHURUTSI.

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the treble, counter, and bass voices of jackals, hyenas, and lions.

We were kindly treated by the Barolongs; and on the tenth day we arrived at Mosega, the abode of Mokhatla, regent over the fragments, though still a large body, of the Bahurutsi. These had congregated in a glen, and subsisted on game, roots, berries, and the produce of their corn-fields; having been deprived of their flocks by the Mantatees. They were evidently living in fear, lest Moselekatse should one day make them captives. From these people I received a hearty welcome, though I was known to few of them except by name.

Having fulfilled my engagement, in conveying my charge in safety to the Bahurutsi, I, in a solemn and formal manner delivered them over to the care of Mokhatla, requesting him either to go himself, or send a strong escort to accompany them until they reached the outposts of the Matabele. To this proposal the Tunas were strongly opposed, and entreated me most earnestly to accompany them to their own country; urging, that as I had shown them so much kindness, I must go and experience that of their king, who, they declared, would kill them if they suffered me to return before he had seen me. Mokhatla came trembling, and begged me to go, as he and his people would flee if I refused. I pleaded my numerous engagements at the Kuruman; but argument was vain. At last, to their inexpressible joy, I consented to go as far as their first cattle outposts. Mokhatla had long wished to see the fearful Moselekatse, who had desolated the Bakone country, and the proximity of whose residence gave him just reason to tremble for the safety of his people; and it was only because they were not the rich owners of herds of cattle, that they had not already become the prey of this African Napoleon.

During three days of heavy rain, which detained us, Mokhatla, whose physiognomy and manœuvres evinced, that, while he had very little of what was noble about him, he was an adept at intrigue, and exhibited too much of the sycophant to command respect, resolved to make himself one of my retinue. The country through which we had to travel was quite of a different character from that we had passed. It was mountainous, and wooded to the summits. Evergreens adorned the valleys, in which numerous streams of excellent water flowed through many a winding course towards the Indian Ocean. During the first and second day's journey I was charmed exceedingly, and was often re

342

COUNTRY AND GAME.

minded of Scotia's hills and dales. As it was a rainy season, every thing was fresh; the clumps of trees that studded the plains being covered with rich and living verdure. But these rocks and vales, and picturesque scenes, were often vocal with the lion's roar. It was a country once covered with a dense population. On the sides of the hills and Kashan mountains were towns in ruins, where thousands once made the country alive, amidst fruitful vales now covered with luxuriant grass, inhabited by game. The extirpating invasions of the Mantatees and Matabele had left to beasts of prey the undisputed right of these lovely woodland glens. The lion, which had revelled in human flesh, as if conscious that there was none to oppose, roamed at large, a terror to the traveller, who often heard with dismay his nightly roaring echoed back by the surrounding hills. We were mercifully preserved during the nights, though our slumbers were often interrupted by his fearful howlings. We had frequently to take our guns and precede the wagon, as the oxen sometimes took fright at the sudden rush of a rhinoceros or buffalo from a thicket. More than one instance occurred when, a rhinoceros being aroused from his slumbers by the crack of the whips, the oxen would scamper off like race-horses, when destruction of gear, and some part of the wagon, was the result. As there was no road, we were frequently under the necessity of taking very circuitous routs to find a passage through deep ravines; and we were often obliged to employ picks, spades, and hatchets, to clear our way. When we bivouacked for the night, a plain was generally selected that we might be the better able to defend ourselves; and when firewood was plentiful, we made a number of fires at a distance around the wagon. But when it rained, our situation was pitiful indeed; and we only wished it to rain so hard that the lion might not like to leave his lair.

Having travelled one hundred miles, five days after leaving Mosega we came to the first cattle outposts of the Matabele, when we halted by a fine rivulet. My attention was arrested by a beautiful and gigantic tree, standing in a defile leading into an extensive and woody ravine, between a high range of mountains. Seeing some individuals employed on the ground under its shade, and the conical points of what looked like houses in miniature, protruding through its evergreen foliage, I proceeded thither, and found that the tree was inhabited by several families of Bakones, the aborigines of the country. I ascended by the notched trunk, and found, to my amazement, no less than seventeen

THE INHABITED TREE.

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of these aërial abodes, and three others unfinished. On reaching the topmost hut, about thirty feet from the ground, I entered, and sat down. Its only furniture was the hay which covered the floor, a spear, a spoon, and a bowl full of locusts. Not having eaten any thing that day, and from the novelty of my situation, not wishing to return immediately to the wagons, I asked a woman who sat at the door with a babe at her breast, permission to eat. This she granted with pleasure, and soon brought me more in a powdered state. Several more females came from the neighbouring roosts, stepping from branch to branch, to see the stranger, who was to them as great a curiosity as the tree was to him. I then visited the different abodes, which were on several principal branches. The structure of these houses was very simple. An oblong scaffold, about seven feet wide, is formed of straight sticks. On one end of this platform a small cone is formed, also of straight sticks, and thatched with grass. A person can nearly stand upright in it; the diameter of the floor is about six feet. The house stands on the end of the oblong, so as to leave a little square space before the door. On the day previous I had passed several villages, some containing forty houses, all built on poles about seven or eight feet from the ground, in the form of a circle; the ascent and descent is by a knotty branch of a tree placed in front of the house. In the centre of the circle there is always a heap of the bones of game they have killed. Such were the domiciles of the impoverished thousands of the aborigines of the country, who, having been scattered and peeled by Moselekatse, had neither herd nor stall, but subsisted on locusts, roots, and the chase. They adopted this mode of architecture to escape the lions which abounded in the country. During the day the families descended to the shade beneath to dress their daily food. When the inhabitants increased, they supported the augmented weight on the branches, by upright sticks, but when lightened of their load, they removed these for firewood.

As a proof of the necessity of such an expedient as above described, I may add, that during the day, having shot a rhinoceros, we had reserved the hump of the animal to roast during the night, a large ant-hill was selected for the purpose, and being prepared by excavation and fire, this tit-bit was deposited. During the night, a couple of lions attracted by the roast, drew near, and though it was beyond gun-shot, we could hear them distinctly, as if holding council to wait till the fire went out, to obtain for themselves our anticipated