A Rip Van Winkle of the Kalahari | Page 9

as we required.
At times, on cresting the brow of a dune, we would come close upon a
herd of gemsbok in the long "aar" beneath us; magnificent animals,
whose long, straight, saber-like horns are feared even by the lion.
Fearless of man, the whole troop would stand as one, gazing straight at
us, immovable as statues, until we were within a few yards of them;
then their leader, usually a magnificent bull, with horns of well on to
four feet, would give a toss of his head and a stamp of his foot, and
away the whole troop would fly; wheeling, trotting, halting and turning
to gaze at us again, in such perfect unison, that they reminded one
irresistibly of a well-drilled troop of cavalry.
Or a flock of ostriches would career across our path, their huge strides
covering the ground at an incredible pace; queer-looking hartebeest
were also plentiful, and duiker, steenbok, and smaller fry abounded
everywhere.
Of lions we saw but little, though their spoors were abundant, and
occasionally we heard them at night; the spoors of leopards were
everywhere but these wily animals are seldom seen unless hunted for
and often a pack of the dreaded wild hunting-dogs would stream across
our path in pursuit of its quarry.
For strangely enough all of these animals appear to be absolutely

independent of water, and some of them notably the gemsbok,
apparently never drink.
There came a day when we entered an entirely different region, though
still the sand stretched in all directions. But now the dunes were no
longer either uniform in height or parallel as they had been, but tossed
and tumbled in all directions in the utmost confusion; and here also
t'samma, and in fact all vegetation, ceased. We reached this region of
awful desolation a little after sunrise one morning, coming upon it
abruptly from the edge of a dune whose hollow held the usual
vegetation in plenty.
With my field-glasses I scanned the bare and barren waste before us in
all directions, but no sign of life or vegetation broke the monotony of
its awful desolation. I looked at Inyati, peering from under his palm in
the same direction, and he answered my unspoken question.
"Yes, master, we must cross it. It runs for many days' journey north and
south, and we cannot go round. I crossed it when I came, but farther
south; and I found a little t'samma then. And yet I nearly died!"
That day the heat was very great, and here there were no bushes to give
us a particle of shade. A few stunted "gar-boomen" there were, and the
horses ate eagerly of the long bunches of bean-like fruit hanging from
them; but their thin, withered foliage was no protection against the
terrific power of the sun. Then Inyati showed me a Bushman trick; for,
burrowing in the side of the dune, he soon made a considerable hollow,
and breaking down the brittle "gar" bushes he roofed it over, throwing a
whole pile of other bushes on top till it was light-proof enough to at
least break some of the sun's glare.
And into this we crawled, and stewed till evening brought us some little
respite.
Meanwhile we had discussed our chances of getting across.
"Three days, at least, my master, it will take the horses; and if we find
no t'samma they will die. It is drier than when I crossed. But if we go

not east, but turn somewhat to the south, there is a pan. It is two days
only but who knows if there is water there? Still, mayhap, that is the
better path." That night we had to wait late before trekking, as the
moon was waning, and in the hideous jumble of dunes before us, we
feared to trust solely to the stars. We were glad to rest too, and let our
horses rest and take their fill of the last t'samma they were likely to get.
I lay smoking in the dark, waiting for the moon to rise, and listening to
the "crunch, crunch" of the horses still steadily feeding, when a low call
from Inyati made me spring to my feet, He had climbed to the top of
the highest dune, and at his second call I ploughed my way up through
the loose sand till I stood beside him. He was pointing away to the
south-east.
"A fire, master," he said; "there are men there; that must be our way,
for there must there be t'samma, or water!"
Sure enough a tiny fire was flickering far away, and apparently on the
far horizon, though it is almost impossible to judge of the distance of a
fire by night.
At any rate, it certainly seemed better for us to try to make