250 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



ance standing detached, some half dead, and others fall- 

 ing to pieces from age. The soil was soft yet firm, and 

 admirably suited for riding. The spoor of eland and 

 giraffe was abundant. 



On the 20th we inspanned at dawn of day, and, hav- 

 ing proceeded about five miles, reached a miserable lit- 

 tle kraal or village of Bakalahari. Here was a vley of 

 Water, beside which we outspanned. Starvation was 

 written in the faces of these inhabitants of the forest. 

 In their vicinity were a few small gardens, containing 

 water-melons and a little corn. Occasionally they have 

 the luck to capture some large animal in a pitfall, when 

 for a season they live in plenty. But as they do not 

 possess salt, the flesh soon spoils, when they are com- 

 pelled once more to roam the forest in qufst of fruits 

 and roots, on which, along with locusts, they in a great 

 measure subsist. In districts where game is abundant, 

 they oft«n construct their pits on a large scale, and erect 

 hedges in the form of a crescent, extending to nearly a 

 mile on either side of the pit. By this means the game 

 may easily be driven into the pitfalls, which are care- 

 fully covered over with thin sticks and dry grass, and 

 thus whole herds of zebras and wildebeests are massa- 

 cred at once, which capture is followed by the most dis- 

 gusting banquets, the poor starving savages gorging 

 and surfeiting in a manner worthy only of the vulture 

 or hysena. They possess no cattle, and if they did, the 

 nearest chief would immediately rob them. All that 

 part of the country abounded with the pitfalls made by 

 these and others of the Bakalahari. Many of these 

 had been dug expressly for the giraffe, and were gen- 

 erally three feet wide and ten long; their depth was 

 from nine to ten feet. They were placed in the path 

 of the camelopard, and in the vicinity of several of these 



