1776. lence, and at-the fame time blowing fo hard and loud, that our ^ 3 ' horfes, which I had left in the care of my Hottentot at the dif- ttance of feveral hundred paces, were not a little feared by it. ¡Upon this, the two wild beafts ran off through the bufhes, ■where it was both dangerous and difficult to purfue them. The Hottentots, who were better ikilled in this kind of chafe, afterwards told us, that we ffiould have done much better if we had fired at the calf, on which the fmall ball would have taken more effect; in which cafe they imagined, that the mother would have -ftaid by the dead body till the next day, when they might have gone there and Ihot her like- Wife. In like manner they fuppofed, that the calf would have ftaid by the body o f the mother in cafe ihe had been ihot firft. It was as dark as pitch before we got to our waggons; .and as here was no beaten path, I was under great appre- henfions left we ihould mifs the road ; though my Hottentot was under no concern on that fcore, being quite fure of what he was about. There was, however, great reafon to fear, left in the dark we ffiould ride full butt againft a rhinoceros, or elfe into the jaws of a lion. Once our horfes ftartled, a circumftance which did not a little alarm us ; till we obferved, that what excited our fears was nothing more than a porcupine, (vide Vol. I. page 15 1 .) The holes and fubterraneous paffages made by this, as well as the various other animals enumerated above, and by which the ground was every where undermined, occafioned our horfes to have feveral falls, which put us under the dif- agreable neceffity of riding very ilowly; at laft we began t o perceive now and then a little glimmer from the fire of our our brother fportfmen who were left with the waggon ât V i6- _ , . , , , ° ° -February- 'guammedaôka, and I muft own, that I was not -a little réjoiced at the appearance of this leading ftar. When .at length we had got to Our waggons, We were told, that our Hottentot huntfman had likewife that day feen and wounded a rhinoceros. Juft before dawn two buffaloes came to drink out of the well near which we were encamped ; bût though we fired at them, we miffed them in the dark. : On the 7 th we West by ffevy to Kurékoïku, and Ihot a buffalo in- our way. , In the night we were awakened by feveral horrid diflbnaût îïoifesy which, though quite diffi- - milar to each other, were uttered at one and the fame time, ib as to form a-moft difmal chorus. Among-thefe, however, there was one which almoft drowned the reft, and which in fornfe meafure refembled the difgufting kind o f laugh, which the fimple populace in Sweden afcribes to a fpirit they call the Gaft, or the ffiriéking man, but which is nothing more than one of the feveral différent criés ufually uttered by the Jlrix riy&ea, or fcriech-owl. -By the light o f thé moon we could fee on a hill near us, the glimpfe o f above half a fcore hyaenas ; and the hdrrid din we heard was, in all probability,: nothing more than a tumultuous yell, fet up by them in order to fcare our oxen, and put them to flight, not daring otherwife to attack-them ; but thefe, with our ufual forecaft, we had made faft to the waggon. A's I thought one of thefe ravenous creatures prefentcd a good -mark to my piece, I could not help, in diceift oppo'fitioh -to the advice of the Hottentots, firing a ball at it. The ffiot, fo far from fearing them atvav, rather occafioned them to repeat-their attempts to frighten us ; as the whole paék -now t V o l . II. R r ruffied
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