one period they seemed to almost shut out the daylight, and it was easy
to realise how unpleasant it would be to meet a flight of locusts when
walking or even riding on horseback. Some odd stories are told about
these creatures. I have heard it gravely stated that occasionally a
train is stopped by the accumulated masses which fall on the metals. My
informant evidently believed that the engine in these cases was
absolutely unable to force its way through the piled up insects, in the
same way as trains are sometimes blocked by gigantic snowdrifts! This,
of course, is ridiculous; what really happens is that the rails become
so greasy from the crushed bodies of the locusts that the wheels can
secure no grip on the metals and spin round to no purpose.

The attitude of the Boers towards the locust is very quaint. If a swarm
of these insects settles on a Dutchman's land, the owner will not
attempt to destroy them because he regards them as a visitation of
Providence. But I have heard that he does not scruple to modify slightly
the schemes of Providence by shovelling the unwelcome locusts upon any
of his neighbours' fields which may adjoin his own estate!

On this same journey we pulled up, as usual, for a brief interval at De
Aar, and just opposite our train was a carriage containing seventeen
Boer prisoners, returning to the front. At the battle of Graspan a
number of Boer artillerymen were found with the Geneva Red Cross on
their arms, and it seems pretty clear that these men had deliberately
slipped the badge on the sleeves in order to avoid capture. They were,
of course, at once secured and treated as ordinary prisoners of war. But
in the hurry of the moment, and very naturally under the circumstances,
some seventeen of the Boers who were _bonâ-fide_ ambulance men were
arrested on suspicion and despatched with the crafty gunners to
Capetown. Here they were examined, and when the authorities realised