when it will be the middle of the night. Then wake me. Watch well, now,
or the lions will be picking those worthless bones of yours before you
are three hours older. I must rest a little, or I shall die.'

"'Koos!' (chief), answered the Zulu. 'Sleep, my father, sleep in peace;
my eyes shall be open as the stars; and like the stars watch over you.'

"Although I was so weak, I could not at once follow his advice. To begin
with, my head ached with fever, and I was torn with anxiety as to the
fate of the Hottentot Hans; and, indeed, as to our own fate, left
with sore feet, empty stomachs, and two cartridges, to find our way to
Bamangwato, forty miles off. Then the mere sensation of knowing that
there are one or more hungry lions prowling round you somewhere in the
dark is disquieting, however well one may be used to it, and, by keeping
the attention on the stretch, tends to prevent one from sleeping. In
addition to all these troubles, too, I was, I remember, seized with
a dreadful longing for a pipe of tobacco, whereas, under the
circumstances, I might as well have longed for the moon.

"At last, however, I fell into an uneasy sleep as full of bad dreams as
a prickly pear is of points, one of which, I recollect, was that I was
setting my naked foot upon a cobra which rose upon its tail and hissed
my name, 'Macumazahn,' into my ear. Indeed, the cobra hissed with such
persistency that at last I roused myself.

"'_Macumazahn, nanzia, nanzia!_' (there, there!) whispered Mashune's
voice into my drowsy ears. Raising myself, I opened my eyes, and I saw
Mashune kneeling by my side and pointing towards the water. Following
the line of his outstretched hand, my eyes fell upon a sight that made
me jump, old hunter as I was even in those days. About twenty paces