58 



EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. VIII. 



We were preparing to leave Chooi, when a party 

 of Griquas arrived with three waggons. They had 

 been hunting giraffes on the Molopo, and having 

 expended their ammunition, were returning to 

 Daniel's Kuil with the spoils. Their horses and 

 oxen were perfect skeletons, and their waggons lite- 

 rally tumbling to pieces. Tireless wheels were 

 lashed together with strips'of raw hide, and festoons 

 of sun-dried meat, termed Biltong, occupied the 

 place of the awning ; whilst a number of filthy 

 women and children were stowed away with an 

 odoriferous melange of garbage and fat. These 

 people had approached to the western limit of 

 Moselekatse's territory without molestation — a cir- 

 cumstance which seemed to inspire our timid 

 followers with confidence. Large parties are annu- 

 ally formed for the purpose of hunting the came- 

 leopard and eland — the flesh of these animals being 

 held in great estimation, and the skins applied to 

 the manufacture of shoes and a variety of other 

 uses. We would gladly have purchased some of 

 the miserable horses, but the owners declined re- 

 ceiving any thing in exchange but gunpowder, 

 which we could not have given without incurring 

 the risk of twelve months' imprisonment on our 

 return to the Colony, although a single pound would 

 have given us the choice of the stud. 



After crossing the Saltpan, we passed a long line 

 of pit-falls used for entrapping game. Upwards of 

 sixty of these were dug close together in a treble 

 line ; a high thorn fence extending in the form of a 



