a8o 



THE CAPTIVE AND HIS CAPTORS. 



The tribe to which these people belonged was the Corannas ->r Korahs. When 

 the Dutch took possession of Cape Colony, they treated the surrounding natives 

 with great cruelty. The Korahs were so far removed to the northward, that they 

 were beyond convenient reach, and, therefore, were not much disturbed. As a 

 consequence, they lived and did as they pleased. 



The Korahs, in their habits, resemble in one respect the Indians of our country. 

 They are migratory, continually shifting their quarters, so that a family that is here 

 to-day, may be found living a hundred miles away a few months later. 



They do not care enough for the land to dispute over it. All they want is water 

 and pasturage for their cattle, and they go wherever there is the best chance of 

 finding them. 



Dick Brownell, surveying a small, pleasant valley, saw nine native dwellings 



before him. They were cones about 

 six feet high and a little broader in cir- 

 cumference. Each had a single open- 

 ing that served as a door and for the 

 admission of light. The frameworks of 

 sticks were covered with several folds 

 of matting, formed from rushes and 

 coarse grass. 



The water or milk vessels of the 

 Korahs are made of clay, baked in the 

 sun, or of wood, gourds or ostrich eggs. 

 Their property consists of horned cat- 

 tle, sheep, goats and dogs. They have 

 no vehicles of any kind, and in moving 

 from place to place, pile their pos- 

 sessions, including their women and 

 children, on the backs of their oxen. 



The ten Korahs into whose hands 

 Dick Brownell had run, were prospecting for suitable grounds for pasturage and 

 their costumes were scantier than is common among their people, who generally wear 

 the skin-cloaks seen among the Hottentot tribes. The women wear square, orna- 

 mented aprons hung from the waist, with copper chains and glass beads around 

 the neck, wrist and ankles. It is believed that these chains are obtained from the 

 Damaras, who live to the northwest, where copper is quite plentiful. 



I have referred several times to the deadly poison used by the Bushmen and 

 other tribes on their spears and arrows. I may have spoken of it as a vegetable 

 poison, which is not strictly true, though it contains vegetable elements. 



In Southern Africa are some of the deadliest serpents known. A Bushman or 

 Korah will plant his naked foot on a writhing cobra and extract the bursting poison- 

 sac from his mouth and eagerly drink its contents, under the belief that it protects 

 him against the fatal effects of a bite from the reptile, or he will carefully save the 



r ^^ v -^i^"^ 



HUNTING FOR POISON. 



