and in
the interests of themselves as a people.'

It was in Sir George's mind that Nongkause, by a queer irony, was the one
member of her family who survived the visitation.

XIV A SAVIOUR OF INDIA

It touches the imagination to have a dark Africa put forward as light for
a Bible scene; namely, that where Jacob, instructed by Rebekah, obtains
the blessing which the blind Isaac thinks himself to be conferring on his
eldest son Esau.

'This scene,' said Sir George Grey, 'did not live wholly to me, until I
met with an incident while hunting in South Africa. Coming upon a young
spring-buck, which had been exhausted by the pursuit, I lifted it into
the saddle before me, and carried it home. All the way, the velvety skin
of the little fellow was brushing against my clothes.

'These were not worn again for some time, and when I did take them out, I
was struck by their delicious smell of herbs and grasses. The scent had
been communicated by the spring-buck, accustomed to make its home among
the sweet growths of nature. It was the hunter's fragrant smell which, in
part, caused Isaac to mistake Jacob for Esau.'

While trekking through Cape Colony, to see everybody and everything for
himself, Sir George was often able to be the keen sportsman. Before his
camp was awake, of a morning, he would make a bowl of black coffee,
shoulder his rifle, and start off, with a couple of bush-boys for
gillies. He would return in the forenoon, deal with his work as Pro-
Consul until the evening, and then, perhaps, seek another shot. Or, if
his people were on the move, he might sally from them at one point, and
rejoin them later. Deer of various sorts were not scarce, and he kept the
camp larder furnished with fresh meat. The Mahomedans, among his motley
following, ate with relish the product of his rifle.

'They trusted me,' he dwelt on that, 'to say "In the name of the Lord,"
when a beast was killed, so observing the Mahomedan rite. They would not
have eaten of its flesh, had they not known that their belief was
expressed, "You are not to destroy one of the Creator's creatures, except
by His permission." Whenever Mahomedans were with me, I undertook to
observe the rule, nor did I ever fail.'

One. sees, in that fact of chance mention, another evidence of how Sir
George came to be such a force among the raw men of the earth. He had the
genius for taking pains to understand them, and thus, even unwittingly,
made them his disciples