304 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



moved. To accomplish this, several men eventually 

 enter the immense cavity of his inside, where they 

 continue mining away with their assagais, and hand- 

 ing the fat to their comrades outside until all is bare. 

 While this is transpiring with the sides and bowels, 

 other parties are equally active in removing the skin 

 and flesh from the remaining parts of the carcass. Tho 

 natives have a horrid practice on these occasions of be- 

 smearing their bodies, from the crown of the head to the 

 sole of the foot, with the black and clotted gore ; and 

 in this anointing they assist one another, each man tak- 

 ing up the fill in both his hands, and spreading it over 

 the back and shoulders of his friend. Throughout the 

 entire proceeding an incessant and deafening clamor of 

 many voices and confused sounds is maintained, and 

 violent jostling and wrestling are practiced by every 

 man, elbowing the breasts and countenances of his fel- 

 lows, all slippery with gore, as he endeavors to force 

 his way to the venison through the dense intervening 

 ranks, while the sharp and ready assagai gleams in 

 every hand. The angry voices and gory appearances 

 of these naked savages, combined with their excited 

 and frantic gestures and glistening arms, presented an 

 effect so wild and striking, that when I first beheld the 

 scene 1 contemplated it in the momentary expectation 

 of beholding one half of the gathering turn their weap- 

 ons against the other. 



The trunk and feet are considered a delicacy, and a 

 detachment are employed on these. The four feet are 

 amputated at the fetlock joint, and the trunk, which at 

 the base is about two feet in thickness, is cut into con- 

 venient lengths. Trunk and feet are then baked, pre- 

 paratory to their removal to head-quarters. The man- 

 ner in which this is done is as follows : A party, pro- 



