208 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



Dr. Livingstone informed me that large game was 

 abundant on all sides to the northward of Bakatla. He 

 stated that herds of elephants occasionally visited the 

 territories of the adjoining chiefs, sometimes frequent- 

 ing a district for half a summer, but that at present he 

 was not aware of any elephants in the forests adjacent 

 to Bakatla, He represented the distant and unexplored 

 forests beyond Bamangwato, the territory of Sicomy, 

 as being allowed by the natives to be the country where 

 elephants were at all times abundant. There was also 

 a prospect of obtaining there ivory in barter for my 

 muskets. I accordingly resolved, in the first instance, 

 to direct my attention mainly to elephants, and not to 

 tarry in any district, however favorable, for the purpose 

 of hunting other varieties of game. Dr. Livingstone 

 stated that I should experience considerable difficulty 

 in reaching Bamangwato, since there was no path nor 

 track of any description to guide me thither. My only 

 chance of getting there seemed to depend on being able 

 to obtain Bechuana guides from Caachy, a subordinate 

 chief of a branch of the "Baquaina" tribe, then resident 

 at a place called " Booby," situated about eighty miles 

 to the northwest of Bakatla. Without these guides it 

 would be almost impossible to proceed, as the waters 

 were few and very far between. The probability, how- 

 ever, was, that these guides would be refused, since it 



which the air is forced through the long, tapering tubes of the two 

 horns of the oryx. The person using the bellows squats between the 

 two bags, which he raises and depresses alternately, working one with 

 each hand. Their hammer and anvil consist of two stones. They nev- 

 ertheless contrive to turn very neat workmanship out of their hands, 

 such as spears, battle-axes, assagais, knives, sewing-needles, &.c. The 

 men of this tribe also manufacture large wooden bowls, which they cut 

 out of the solid piece, the tool they use for this purpose being a small 

 implement shaped like an adze. 



