MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
They have no property to furnish 
them with food in an easy and 
convenient manner, like many of 
the savages of Southern Africa, 
who feed upon the milk and flesh 
of their herds, but are obliged 
constantly, by means of fraud and 
artifice, to procure a supply of 
the most pressing necessaries. 
Thence have they been led to the 
invention of poisoned arrows, with 
which they can hit to a certainty 
those wild animals of the field, 
whose strength and_ swiftness 
would otherwise be an overmatch 
forthem. The effect of the poison 
is so rapid, that they are sure to 
find the animal who has heen 
touched with it in a quarter of an 
hour, if not absolutely dead, yet 
so stunned and powerless, that 
the effect is the same. To kill it 
entirely, to cut out the poisoned 
part, and to begin devouring the 
prey, are acts which follow each 
ether with the utmost possible ra- 
pidity, nor is the spot quitted till 
the last bone is entirely cleared. 
Larger animals, whose thick 
skins their poisoned arrows cannot 
penetrate, become not the less 
the prey of their cunning and con- 
trivance. The banks of the Great 
River are full of pits made by the 
Bosjesmans, to catch the sea-cow 
inits nocturnal wanderings. These 
pits are large and deep, with a 
sharp-pointed stake planted in the 
midst, and are most dexterously 
covered over with twigs, leaves, 
and grass. The animal that falls 
in dies a death of the most hor- 
rible torture, for the stake, driven 
deep into the body, prevents his 
moving about in so confined a 
space, out of which he might 
otherwise, perhaps, be able to 
work his way by the exertion of 
469 
his vast strength ; nor is it much 
in the power of the Bosjesman 
himself, with his imperfect wea- 
pens, to release him speedily from 
his torments. In some places, 
even the prudent elephant falls, in 
this way, into the hands of the 
Bosjesmans. Nor are these peo- 
ple less subtle in ensnaring fish, 
tor the sake of which they ] haunt 
very much the neighbourhood of 
the larger rivers. They make a 
sort of pointed baskets of the twigs 
of trees, which have very much 
the form of our: eel-baskets and 
are used in the same manner; or 
if they expect a swelling of the 
stream, while the water is still low, 
they make upon the strand a large 
cistern as it were, enclosed by a 
wall of stones, which serves as a 
reservoir, where, if fortune be 
favourable, a quantity of fish are 
deposited at the subsiding of the 
waters. 
In other parts, they spy about 
from the heights, to discover the 
nests of the cunning ostriches, 
and find a most wholesome and 
refreshing food in the eggs stolen 
from them. Snakes in abundance 
are caught by them, on account 
of the poison with which they tip 
their arrows; but after cutting, 
or biting off the head, and taking 
out the bag of poison, the animal 
itself serves them as food. They 
know very well, that the most 
poisonous serpents may be eaten 
with perfect safety ; that the poi- 
son only kills by being mixed im- 
mediately with the blood. The 
swarms of wandering locusts, 
which to the civilized world are so 
great an annoyance, furnish to 
the Bosjesmans another resource 
for supporting life. How easy 
soever it may be te catch them by 
