Page:Seven Years in South Africa v1.djvu/489

 mediate relief followed. Nature did the rest, and in three days’ time I had so far recovered, that we were able to proceed on our way.

Leaving the actual valley of the Marico on the 3rd of March, we crossed the saddle, and entered a valley intersected by the Bechuana-spruit, and enclosed on the southern side by the interesting Bertha heights. On their south-western spurs lies Chwhene-Chwene, the town belonging to the Batlokas, under Matlapin, their chief; it is situated in Sechele’s territory, which extends from the mouth of the Sirorume to the Dwars mountains. In the underwood in the hollow I found some morula-trees bearing ripe fruit.

As soon as we could on the following day we made our way towards the town, which was tolerably clean, the farmsteads and huts being larger and more commodious than those of most Bechuanas; in some cases they were surrounded by gardens. The fields were sown, but only partially, with corn, maize, and Kaffr sugar-cane. Just outside the town I came to a halt, because some of the Batlokas told me that there were merry-makings going on within, and the Morena was tipsy.

Descending the slope from the table-land, we found several deep holes in the hard grey limestone containing cool spring water. The view from the springs was very striking. The thinly-wooded valley in front of us was several miles in width, and stretched away eastwards to the Marico. It was bounded on the south by the countless summits of