HUNTING THE OSTRICH. 



203 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



HUNTIIV6 THE OSTRICH, THE WILDEBEEST, AND THE ORYX. 

 OLLOWING Mr. Gumming in his dash- 

 ing career, we next extract his account 

 of the mode of hunting the Ostrich 

 among the Bushmen, and his own hunt- 

 ing of the beautiful oryx. 



A favorite method adopted by the wild 

 Bushman for approaching the ostrich 

 and other varieties of game, is to clotho 

 himself in the skin of one of these birds, 

 in which, taSdng care of the wind, he 

 stalks about the plain, cunningly imi- 

 tating the gait and motions of the ostrich 

 until within range, when, with a well-directed poisoned arrow 

 from his tiny bow, he can generally seal the fate of any of the 

 ordinary varieties of game. These insignificant-looking arrows 

 are about two feet six inches in length ; they consist of a slender 

 reed, with a sharp bone head, thoroughly poisoned with a compo 

 sition, of which the principal ingredients are obtained sometimes 

 from a succulent herb, having thick leaves, yielding a poisonous 

 milky juice, and sometimes from the jaws of snakes. The bow 

 barely exceeds three feet in length ; its string is of twisted sinews 

 When a Bushman finds an ostrich's nest, ho enscones himself in 

 it, ind there awaits the return of the old birds, by which means 

 ht generally secures the pair. It is by means of these little arrows 



