270 



THE HUNTER'S ARCADIA. 



resembling many of the Australian animals, the sub- 

 ject of my remarks is not a marsupial. 



If some of our aristocratic home-bred sportsmen 

 had seen my party as they started that evening for 

 the scene of our work, they would have pronounced 

 them a motley group, and well might they have 

 done so, for there was not among the lot as much 

 clothing as would have made an ordinary-sized table 

 napkin, while their hides shone resplendent with 

 health and frequent lubrications of rancid butter. 

 This skin dressing does not tend to the sweetness 

 of their scent upon the olfactory nerves of a 

 European, but this is the sole disagreeable that it 

 possesses, while it unquestionably results in pro- 

 ducing great comfort to the adopters of the system. 

 In the Bible we learn that oil gave cheerful counte- 

 nances to the ancients therein spoken of. Here, in 

 our modern times, among a primitive people, un- 

 contaminated by the vices of civilisation, the same 

 result is obtained through the medium of butter. It 

 might be interesting to my readers, especially if I 

 should chance to be honoured by any of the fair 

 sex, to inform them how a Bechuana belle performs 

 her toilet. Her hair, of which she is very proud, 



