sand behind us, the place was a veritable
paradise. And at length, where the trees were thickest, we espied tall
green reeds growing thickly, and a few minutes later our fears were at
an end, for here was water in plenty.

It was thick and muddy, and fouled by wild animals, whose spoors showed
thick all around it; but to us it was absolute nectar, and it needed
all Inyati's persuasion to prevent me from drinking to excess and
probably dying on the spot.

We had to control the horses too, and let them drink but little at a
time, or they too would probably have drank till they dropped dead in
their tracks.

In this pleasant oasis we stayed for three days, resting, recuperating,
and living on the fat of the land. Game there was in abundance, so much
so, indeed, that they were a cause of anxiety, for the water in the
vlei was decreasing rapidly from the number of animals that drank there
nightly, and it was obvious that it would not last for very long unless
rain fell. Signs were not wanting that the season had been
exceptionally dry, for the vlei had at one time been of large extent,
and now nothing but the one small pool remained. At it also drank
myriads of partridges, the air being literally thick with the huge
swarms of them that came in the early morning and again at night, so
tame and fearless that they scarcely troubled to get out of our way,
and we kept our pot going by simply knocking them over with a stick.

We soon explored the pan or oasis which was almost circular in shape
and about a mile in diameter, and completely encircled by dunes; most
of them as barren and forbidding as those we had already passed
through, though to the south there was a certain amount of vegetation.
This, however, was useless to us, as our way was east or north-east,
and in this direction all Inyati's reconnoitering failed to discover
anything but bare dunes, as far as the eye could reach.

Pleasant as the shade and greenery of the oasis was, it was evident
that our stay could not be a lengthy one; moreover, lions were
increasingly numerous, and for the first time in our trip began to
cause us serious anxiety. So bold were they that fires had to be lit at
nightfall and kept going all night; and their roars made sleep
impossible.

The nights were now dark and moonless, and on the third of our stay the
lions were exceptionally troublesome. We could see little beyond the
light of the fires, but roars and growls came from all quart