182 Observations on the Origin of the Bushmen. 



For subsistence, the Bushmen, as has already been ob- 

 served, trust principally to the fruits of the earth, and to 

 the game which their plains afford : but when either of those 

 are found deficient, few have any hesitation in supplying 

 their wants from the flocks of the neighbouring farmers. 

 With even such a variety of resources, they are nevertheless 

 often sufferers from extreme want, and are thereby necessi- 

 tated to consume almost every article which is to be found 

 within the range of their retreats. Of the vegetable pro- 

 ductions, many roots, both fibrous, fleshy, and bulbous, form 

 articles of their food; and of berries and other fruits, they 

 employ almost all that are met with whose qualities are not 

 prejudicial to health, and many of which are doubtless pos- 

 sessed of no properties beyond those of filling and distend- 

 ing the stomach. Amongst the most useful and nutritious of 

 the vegetable products, is the seed of a species of grass which 

 grows in their country, as well as in the northern parts of 

 the colony, and which, when cleaned and boiled, has considera- 

 ble resemblance in taste to barley similarly prepared. This 

 at the proper season occurs in considerable quantities, and is 

 acquired in two ways, — either by directly collecting the tops 

 of the grass and then separating the seed, or by robbing the 

 black ants which there occur, and who carry quantities of it 

 as food to their subterranean abodes. 



Subservient as the vegetable kingdom is thus rendered, the 

 animal one is made not less so ; for, from the largest quadrupeds 

 that inhabit their wastes, to the most disgusting reptile or the 

 smallest insect, almost all are in some way or other employed 

 as articles of provision. The hippotami, zebras, quaggas, 

 different species of antilopes, jackals, &c. as well as the 

 ostrich and bustard, form the favorite objects of pursuit with 

 the men ; and the hares, dassies, moles, rats, snakes, lizards, 

 grass-hoppers, ants, and such like, the occupation of the 

 women and boys. There is scarcely a four-footed animal 

 which they can destroy that they do not convert to food, and 

 there is hardly a portion of any one of those, with the excep- 

 tion of the bones, that they do not devour. The flesh in every 

 situation they greedily consume ; the stomach and intestines 

 they esteem as delicacies ; the liver and kidneys they often 

 swallow even raw, and the contents of the stomachs of many 

 animals they drink or eat either pure or diluted with water. 

 The blood of most animals they highly prize, and though 

 usually cooked before it is used, yet is often either from choice 

 or necessity, occasioned by a want of water, swallowed as it 

 flows from the body. The skins, at least of the larger 

 animals, arc not even rejected, and those they often feed upon 

 with a degree of rapacity, which nothing but extreme hunger 

 ■.von Id support. 



