clean by the
aasvogels had been smashed by the terrible fall. A short examination of
my little domain showed me that although escape from it was apparently
hopeless especially in my maimed condition there was no need for me to
starve, and indeed my prison was a very pleasant one. There were wild
fruits in abundance, many of them unknown to me, but prominent among
them the red, luscious, intoxicating berries that had saved my life in
the desert; and these I now ate greedily, finding them much riper than
when I had first tasted them, and their effect much more potent. They
intoxicated me, perhaps maddened me, and dulled my intellect for the
time; but they gave respite to my pain-racked frame, and gave me sleep.
Sometimes for days I would give myself up to them, eating nothing else,
and lying in a pleasant, dreamy stupor by the deep pool, staring into
the dark, clear depths where the white sand glimmered so white.

At times I roused myself sufficiently to search for other food, of
which there was plenty. Partridges and other fowl swarmed at the water,
and were easily killed or trapped, and there was plenty of t'samma
growing quite close to the spot where I had fallen.

These, since I had now an abundance of water, I did not attempt to eat;
taking only the pips from the ripe ones, drying them in the sun, and
pounding them between two stones, as I had often seen the Bushmen do.
From the coarse meal thus obtained I made little cakes, roasting them
on hot stones or the embers of my fire. Matches I had none, but my
burning glass served me just as well, for every day the sun shone;
indeed seldom did a cloud cross the sky, and whatever storms may have
raged outside nothing but the gentlest breeze ever reached the deep
hollow that held me a willing prisoner. Willing? Well, at least
apathetic; for all hope, all ambition, all interest in life had left
me. I had forgotten the reason of my quest, forgotten the girl who had
sent me on it, forgotten that I was once an erect and vigorous man with
other interests than to crawl round for berries like an ape, and lie
all day and sleep when once hunger was appeased. And thus I led an
invertebrate, purposeless existence. I had warmth, food, and water, and
the berries that gave me pleasant dreams, and I wanted nothing more. I
took no note of the passing of time weeks, months God knows? even
years! may have passed nay must have passed as in a dream, and I might
well have died there beside the