"Well, Baas Tom," replied the little man with a snigger, "I was brought up in a wild country, much wilder even than this, and I learned to know every sound in the veldt by day and night, and the voice of every beast, big and little. My food and my life depended on it; and my parents, and theirs before them, knew all about these things, and told me of them. You may say I sucked them in with my mother’s milk." "Talking about jackals," he went on musingly; "they are funny beasts--the cleverest and most quick-witted in the veldt. We Bushmen have many tales about them. Shall I tell you one?" "Yes, yes," said Guy and Tom together. "Fire away, Poeskop!" "Well," proceeded the little Bushman, "there was once a jackal that lived in Namaqualand, not far from the sea. He saw one day a wagon laden with fish; and as he was fond of fish, and wanted a change of food, he tried to get into the wagon from behind. But it was filled up, and he could not do so. But he bethought himself of a plan. So he ran and lay in the road as if dead. He was a silver-backed jackal, and had a beautiful skin; and the _fore-louper_ [ox-leader] came along and picked him up, and said to the driver, ’Here’s a fine jackal skin for your vrouw!’ ’Throw it up,’ said the driver, and the boy threw the jackal into the wagon. It was a fine night, just like this, and the jackal busied himself in throwing the fish out of the wagon as far as he was able, sniggering to himself as he did so. Then, presently, he slipped down, and went back along the road to his feast. But he found, to his great annoyance, that a great spotted hyæna and his wife had already found and eaten up most of the fish. Master Jackal thought a little, and decided to hide his vexation, and then explained to the hyæna his plan; and the hyæna said it was good, and he would try it one of these days. So a little while after the hyæna saw the wagon coming from the sea again, laden with fish, and, just as the jackal had done, stretched himself out for dead on the road in front. The fore-louper boy came up, and seeing a mangy hyæna said, ’Here’s an ugly brute!’ As he said this, he dealt the hyæna a heavy kick. The hyæna flinched, and the boy, smelling a rat, as you English say, ran back to the wagon-driver and told him. The two returned with sticks, and belaboured the hyæna within an inch of his life. But the hyæna, as he had been told to do by the jackal, lay still till they had finished with him. Then he got up, sore all over, and dragged himself off. He told his misfortune to the jackal, who pretended to sympathize. "’Ah!’ said the hyæna, ’it was your handsome skin that helped you. Never mind, I shall find another way next time.’ "The jackal sniggered to himself, and went off with his tail up, having enjoyed a very pleasant revenge." There was much laughter at this simple Bushman yarn. "Poeskop," said Mr. Blakeney, "what part of the country do your people come from, and what race are you?"