nty of time
to inspect them. An old lady, with grizzled hair, toothless and distorted
in countenance, with legs and arms mere bones, and skin shrunken and
parched; a girl-child, perhaps six years old, by no means an ugly little
thing, and a youngish man made up the trio; all stark-naked, and
unadorned by artificial means, unless one excepts a powerfully scented
mixture of grease and ashes, with which their bodies were smeared. The
buck--poor fellow!--was suffering from some horrible skin disease, which
spread over his chest and back. He seemed to have but little power in his
arms, and a pitiful object he was, as we uncovered him from his screen of
branches. Having apparently satisfied them that it was not our intention
to eat them, by signs we showed them our pressing need for water--these
they readily understood--doubtless because their own daily experience is
one constant hunt for food or water. Evidently we had the former with us
in the shape of camels, therefore we could only want the latter. The
little child very soon showed great confidence, and, taking my hand, led
us over a neighbouring sand-ridge. The old lady took a great fancy to
Godfrey, and convinced us that flirting is by no means confined to
civilisation.

Leading us obliquely across the ridges we had just passed over, some two
miles from the scene of their hunting, they halted at their well. To the
North of it an almost barren ridge of sand rising to a height of perhaps
sixty feet, and running away East and West for possibly ten miles without
a break, from the crest of which we could see a limitless sea of ridges
as far as the eye could reach to the Northward (a cheerful prospect!), to
the South the undulating treeless desert of gravel we had just crossed.
Between the foot of the ridge and a stony slope the well was situated--the
usual little round hole in the sand--a small patch of roly-poly grass
making a slight difference in the appearance of the country immediately
surrounding the hole. As well as this roly-poly, we were delighted to see
a few scattered plants of parakeelia, and lost no time in unloading and
hobbling the camels, who in their turn made all haste to devour this
life-giving vegetation.

Camp made, we set to work on the well, sinking our boxes as before, our
black friends watching us with evident interest. Presently we heard a
shrill call, and, looking up, saw the rest of the family hesitating
between curiosity and fear. The old gin rea