sually merely a means of transit from spot
to spot; not a comrade, not a companion. I was not astonished to find this
feeling amongst the niggers, because I have noticed it among the natives in
every colony in Australia, and even amongst such inveterate horsemen as the
Sioux Indians of America and the Maories of New Zealand; but I was
surprised to note how little sympathy existed between the Boer and his
equine helper.

The nigger servant is a sporting sort of party, and never loses an
opportunity to indulge his tastes in this direction. I had an excellent
chance the other day to note how fond he is of a bit of hunting. We had
camped before sundown in a rather picturesque position, and I was watching
the effect of the declining sun on the gloomy kopjes, when I noticed a
commotion in all the camps, in front, at the rear, and on both flanks. In
ten seconds every nigger in the whole camp had deserted his work and was
frantically dashing out on to the veldt. They uttered shrill cries as they
ran, and every man had some sort of weapon in his hand, either a tomahawk,
a billet of wood, or a rock. With marvellous celerity they formed a huge
circle, though what they were after was a puzzle to me. I fancied for
awhile that one of their number must have run "amuck," and the rest meant
to send him to slumber. Quickly they narrowed the circle, the whole body of
them moving as if linked together and propelled by unseen mechanism. When
the circle got about the third the size of an ordinary cricket ground I saw
what they were after. A brace of hares had caught their eyes, and this was
their method of capturing the fleet-footed, but stupid, "racers of the
veldt." First one nigger and then another detached himself from the circle,
and, darting in, had a shy at the quarry with whatever missile he had with
him. If he missed--and a good many of them missed--the speedy little bit of
fur, he returned crestfallen to the circle again, amidst jeers and laughter
from the rest. The hares darted hither and thither in that ever narrowing
circle of foes, until a couple of well-aimed shots, one with a rock as big
as a cricket ball, and one with a tomahawk, laid them out, and they became
the prize of the successful marksmen. The nigger "boy" has to be paid one
pound a week and his "scoff," and, taking him all in all, in spite of his
faults, which are many, I verily think he earns it.

CHARACTER SKETCHES IN CAMP.