jar painfully. Kipling
somewhere describes a subtle and complex odour, which, he says, is the
smell of the great Indian Empire. That of the great African Empire in
this year of grace is the direct and simple one which I have
indicated. In the evening we had a grand supper of fried eggs, jam,
chupatties, and cocoa. This meal immediately followed tea. We made our
fire in the best place for one, an ant-hill, about two feet high. The
plan is to hack two holes, one in the top, another on the windward
side, and to connect the two passages. There is then a fine draught,
and you can cook both on the top and at the side. Inside, the
substance of the hill itself gets red-hot and keeps a sustained heat.

_Recipe for jam chupatties._--Take some suet and melt rapidly in a
mess-tin, over a quick fire (because you are hungry and can't wait);
meanwhile make a tough dry dough of flour and water and salt; cut into
rounds to fit the mess-tin, spread with jam, double over and place in
the boiling fat; turn them frequently. Cook for about ten minutes. A
residual product of this dish is a sort of hard-bake toffee, formed by
the leakage of jam from the chupatties.

Brabant's Horse left in the night.

_August 7._--A bitterly cold, windy day. Marched for several hours
over a yellow, undulating plain and camped, near nothing, about 12.30.
After dinner I walked over to a Kaffir kraal and bought fuel, and two
infants' copper bangles. I was done over the bangles, so I made it up
over the fuel (hard round cakes of prepared cow's dung), filling a
sack brim-full, in spite of the loud expostulations of the black lady.
They were a most amusing crowd, and the children quite pretty. I also
tasted Kaffir beer for the first, and last, time. Kaffir bangles
abound in the Battery. In fact, you will scarcely see a soldier
anywhere without them. The fashion is to wear them on the wrist as
bracelets. They are of copper and brass, and often of beautiful
workmanship. The difficulty about collecting curios is that there is
nowhere to carry them, though some fellows have a genius for finding
room for several heavy bits of shell, etc. Empty pom-pom shells, which
are small and portable, are much sought after; and our own brass
cartridge, if one could take an old one along, would make a beautiful
lamp-stand at home. Rum to-night.

_August 8._--Reveille at six. Off at 7.30. Another march over the same
bare, undulating plain. About eleven we passed a spruit where the