him run his chance of becoming a victim to the deadly
flies, and then give him a decent funeral.
The night was dark and very dreary. The dismal air
deadened the spirits of the whole party. Even the sprightly
levity of the Mashona seemed to be buried. Up the valley
the wind blew “ great guns,” bringing with it a penetrating,
wetting mist. Wrapped in our blankets, John and myself
crouched close to the hissing, badly burning fire.
Melancholy experiences once more made John think of
his home and his “ leetle wife” far away in the Tati gold-
fields. Lugubrious meditations respecting the girl he left
behind him were evidently surging through his depressed
brain when he would give vent to an expression of this
kin d :
“ Oh ! my master, I go well all de years ; but dis year I
go varee bad. When de master goes to hunt, de people
wants to fight wid me all de time.”
Knowing that sleep would be the most beneficial thing
under such gloomy circumstances, I crawled into the
diminutive tent which Karemba had almost filled with
sacks of meal and other stores that had to be kept dry. At
my head was the chronometer; on one side were the rifles,
gun, and cartridges; on the other the provisions, the latter
being packed so closely that very little room was left for
the old.goat, who had pretty much of his own way in the
tent, seeing that I was always happier when he remained
inside, for the simple reason that when he was outside he
invariably chewed the cords, so as to demolish the humble
erection, an effort which was more than once crowned with
eomplete success.
On this especial night, some time after I had got soundly
off to sleep, I was startled by a sharp blow on my back,
which was quickly followed by the collapse of the whole
A MAN AND GOAT FIGHT. 147
tent. This was not my first experience of similar catastrophes,
but my restive lodger had never before treated me
quite so ungraciously. Annoyed by being cramped to an
unusual extent, the old goat must have moved up towards
my head in order to get more room, and meeting with disappointment
he was consequently in proper form to fight
for his rights; so he banged away in a most unceremonious
manner, I all the time making wild clutches in the darkness,
expecting to seize a horn or a leg. But n o : my irate companion
was struggling to get out of the canvas, and as I
was bent upon the same object we had a regular rough and
tumble set-to. The old goat managed to make things pretty
uncomfortable for the remainder of the busy night.
Before noon next day a good deal more game had been
shot, and numbers of people, from a town hidden in the
recesses of the contiguous hills, came up to us, bringing
with them a most varied store of commodities for sale, or
rather in exchange for meat. Like a couple of butchers,
John and myself stood over the heaps of game, carving and
cutting off the pieces, for which we got in exchange sweet
potatoes (very good when roasted), and other provisions for
the party.
Not a few of our visitors, too, brought with them gold
dust, stuffed in large quills stopped at the end with small
pieces of bark. Of this gold dust, and of the gold-
yielding region generally, it is my intention to speak
more fully further on. Eor the gold dust I gave cloth in
exchange; but, commercially speaking, I found that I had
invariably made bad bargains, the people placing an extraordinary
value upon the stuff, as they made signs that they
had worked very hard to procure it. Eor two fathoms of
white calico I bought a very fine assegai, of the kind used
in elephant hunting.