So I just sat down and rested, letting the oxen feed throughout the
hours of light on the rich grasses which grew upon the bottom-most
slopes of the big mountain where we were camped by a stream, not more
than a hundred yards above the timber line.

At some time or other there had been a native village at this spot;
probably the Zulus had cleaned it out in long past years, for I
found human bones black with age lying in the long grass. Indeed, the
cattle-kraal still remained and in such good condition that by piling
up a few stones here and there on the walls and closing the narrow
entrances with thorn bushes, we could still use it to enclose our oxen
at night. This I did for fear lest there should be lions about, though I
had neither seen nor heard them.

So the days went by pleasantly enough with lots to eat, since whenever
we wanted meat I had only to go a few yards to shoot a fat buck at a
spot whither they trekked to drink in the evening, till at last came the
time of full moon. Of this I was also glad, since, to tell the truth, I
had begun to be bored. Rest is good, but for a man who has always led an
active life too much of it is very bad, for then he begins to think and
thought in large doses is depressing.

Of the fire-eating Umslopogaas there was no sign, so I made up my mind
that on the morrow I would start after those elephants and when I had
shot--or failed to shoot--some of them, return to Natal. I felt unable
to remain idle any more; it never was my gift to do so, which is perhaps
why I employ my ample leisure here in England in jotting down such
reminiscences as these.