xx A PROVISION AGAINST FAMINE 343 



it be miles away and they appear to be in the 

 last stage of emaciation. Once there, it is with 

 the men a case of " J'y suis, j'y reste," and they will 

 not move again until every bit of the meat is 

 eaten. The women and children have to fetch 

 water every day, though it may be miles distant. 

 However wasted and apparently near death Bush- 

 men may be, once they get alongside of a dead 

 elephant they recover flesh and regain their strength 

 in a marvellously short space of time. 



When hunting in the Linquasi district to the 

 west of Matabeleland, in 1873, I often noticed large 

 pieces of rhinoceros and giraffe hide which had 

 evidently been placed by human hands high up 

 in the branches of trees. These slabs of hide, the 

 Bushmen told me, had belonged to animals killed 

 by their people, and had been placed in the trees 

 out of the reach of hyaenas as a provision against 

 starvation in times of famine. 



I was once riding behind some hungry Bushmen 

 looking for giraffe in the country between the 

 Mababi and Botletlie rivers, when they came on a 

 single ostrich egg lying on the ground. It was 

 then late in September, and this ego; had in all 

 probability been laid in the previous May or June, 

 and had lain on the ground in the broiling sun ever 

 since. 



My gaunt and hungry guides seemed greatly 

 excited over their find, and each of them in turn 

 held it up and shook it close to his ear. Then I 

 saw they were going to break it, so I moved to one 

 side, as I expected it would go off with a loud 

 explosion. It was, however, long past that stage, 

 all the contents of the egg having solidified into 

 a thick brown-coloured paste at the one end. I 

 never would have believed, if I had not experienced 

 it, that so much smell could have been given off by 

 so small an amount of matter. As I once heard an 



