Only I was hungry, hungry; yes, I lived on snails and worms, and grass like an ox, till my middle ached.

Still, at last I got across the river and near to the camp.
"Then just before the day broke and I was saying, 'Now, Hans, although your heart is sad, your stomach will rejoice and sing,' what did I see but those Zulu devils, thousands of them, rush down on the camp and kill all the poor Boers.

Men and women and the little children, they killed them by the hundred, till at last other Boers came and drove them away, although they took all the cattle with them.

Well, as I was sure that they would come back, I did not stop there.

I ran down to the side of the river, and have been crawling about in the reeds for days, living on the eggs of water-birds and a few small fish that I caught in the pools, till this morning, when I heard the Zulus again and slipped up here into this hole.