THE TRIBES OF THE KALAHARI 65 



elands (Boselaphus oreas), gemsbucks, koodoos (Strepsiceros 



capensis\ or duikers {Cephalopws mergens), may often be seen 



thirty or forty miles from the nearest 



water. These, having sharp-pointed 



hoofs well adapted for digging, are 



nble to subsist without water for 



many months at a time, by living on 



moist bulbs and tubers; while the 



presence of the rhinoceros, of the 



buffalo and gnu (Catohlepas Gnu), 



of the giraffe, the zebra, and pal- 



lah {Antilope 7)ielam,pus\ is always 



a certain indication of water being 



within a distance of seven or eight Koodoo. 



miles. 



The tribes of the Kalahari consist of bushmen, probably the 

 aborigines of the southern part of the continent, and of Bakala- 

 hari, the remnants of an ancient Bechuana emigration. The 

 nomadic bushmen are a nation of hunters, and so thoroughly 

 acquainted with the habits of the game, that they follow them 

 in their migrations, and prey upon them from place to place ; 

 thus proving as complete a check upon their inordinate increase 

 as the other carnivora. Supplying by cunning or invention 

 their lack of strength, like the Indian tribes of Gruiana, they 

 make use of poisoned arrows, fatal even to the lion ; but though 

 their chief food is the flesh of animals, they eke it out by what 

 the women collect of roots and beans and fruits of the desert. 

 Their thin wiry forms are capable of great exertion, and well 

 able to bear the severe privations to which the inhabitants of 

 such a country must submit. 



The Bakalahari are traditionally reported to be the oldest of 

 the Bechuana tribes driven into the desert by a fresh migration 

 of their own nation. Though living ever since on the same 

 plains with the bushmen, under the same influences of climate, 

 enduring the same thirst, and living on the same food for cen- 

 turies, they still retain in undying vigour the Bechuana love 

 for agriculture and domestic animals, hoeing their gardens 

 annually, though often all that they can hope for is a supply 

 of melons and pumpkins, and carefully rearing small herds of 

 goats, although to provide them with water is a task of no 



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