We had now fairly entered Moshesh's country, and no more firing was allowed, lest he might construe it into an act of hostility. About nine in the morning we halted at the deserted remains of an old Basuto village, consisting of round huts thatched with dry grass, and stone cattle kraals, similar to the sheep pens on our mountains at home. The huts differ in several respects from those of the Kaffirs, being smaller, slightly pointed on the top, and entered by a sort of porch, the door so low as to compel one to enter on hands and knees. Nine miles further, we came to the Lieuw Rivier (_Lion's River_), and halted on the opposite bank, after wading waist deep through the narrow rushing stream. We found the banks on both sides so steep and awkward that before the waggons could be moved, the whole force of Sappers and Miners, and a fatigue party beside, had to cut the banks away with spades and picks, and even then, with double teams of oxen, and a legion of whips stretched across the river, all going at once, five hours did not bring over more than half the train, the rest remaining for the night, with a strong guard, on the other side. Now that we could not shoot, the game became tantalizingly plentiful. The plain was scarcely ever without small herds or single animals. Our track was seldom more than the half-obliterated marks of some trader's waggon of the year before. The supplies of dung for fuel were very materially interfered with by millions of black beetles, called 'dung rollers,' a kind of scarabæus, which swarmed day after day on every part of the plain. A fresh deposit was instantaneously attacked by these untiring scavengers, who were incessantly at work, rolling the dung into large balls, bustling about, and running breech foremost, with their load between their hind legs, as fast as they could go, apparently to nowhere in particular, and fighting most fiercely with each other for pieces of "fuel" twice as big as themselves, the vanquished one going off in a great hurry to get another ball to roll, none seeming to know his own. During the day we passed several small deserted villages; the evening closed in with one of the thunderstorms of the country, as terrific as any we had witnessed.