34-0 Dr. A. Smith's Observations relative to the 



it is used, yet it is often, either from choice or necessity occa- 

 sioned by a want of water, swallowed as it flows from the body. 

 The skins, at least of the larger animals, are not even rejected, 

 and those they often feed upon with a degree of rapacity, 

 which nothing but extreme hunger would support. 



Some of the articles just stated are regularly made use of 

 in their natural state, but the majority only when cooked. The 

 vegetable productions that require such preparation, are either 

 boiled or roasted; and those belonging to the animal kingdom 

 are mostly treated in the latter way, with the exception of grass- 

 hoppers, larvae of ants, and ostrich eggs, which are commonly 

 consumed without being submitted to the influence of cooking ; 

 all the others are, when choice can be exercised, more or less 

 prepared ; and what requires most labour, is the dried skins 

 of the larger animals. Those are first moistened by water, 

 and then stamped and roasted ; or else roasted first, and 

 stamped afterwards. Though the employment of articles like 

 the last mentioned is calculated to create a degree of wonder 

 in those who have never suffered severely from the pangs of 

 want, yet how much more adapted for such a purpose is the 

 observance of a fact, which almost daily occurs amongst the 

 Bushmen, namely, the preparation of pieces of old shoes, &c. 

 for the purpose of furnishing a scanty and tasteless meal. 



The vegetable products are principally obtained without 

 much labour; and if we except the different roots, few require 

 much exertion. The latter it is necessary to dig out of the 

 ground, and for that purpose they employ either a piece of 

 pointed wood hardened by having been previously a little 

 burnt, or else a gemsbok horn, and by either of those they 

 loosen the surrounding soil with amazing rapidity. The ani- 

 mal productions are partly procured without much trouble, 

 but the majority not without very considerable exertion, as 

 well as the exercise of no small degree of dexterity and cun- 

 ning. The bow and arrow are the means upon which they 

 mostly rely for obtaining the latter ; and next to those, snares 

 and dogs. In employing the former, they either endeavour to 

 approach the animal within a suitable distance to wound him 

 severely, or else to conceal themselves so as to be in the way 

 as he may be pursuing his progress, or, lastly, by the practice 

 of decoys to bring him into a fitting position. The facility 

 they have of creeping, and the similarity between the colour 

 of their skin and the arid wastes over which they hunt, when 

 conjoined to the amazing sharpness of their sight, enable them 

 often to advance within a very little distance of game, and 

 often by a wound of a poisoned arrow to intimate to the ani- 

 mal its unfortunate situation. He observes every motion of 



its 



