110 BIG GAME SHOOTING 
done, stand with a fierce countenance over their slaves until al! 
is put right, when the inferior race retire. Trapdoor spiders, 
too, were very numerous, with their cunning arrangements. 
But I have wandered from the Limpopo. 
The Bechuana are not of much account in hunting elephant 
with the spear, though they talk and brag a good deal about 
it ; indeed I have known them fairly beaten and forced to come 
to me for assistance. I can see a young bull now, walking 
about quite strongly, with forty assegais in him, scattering his 
assailants by trumpeting and half-charges. ‘ Would “ Tlaga” 
come and shoot him for them?’ ‘Tlaga did. The elephant 
looked like a porcupine, but they would never have bagged 
. him, though he might have died afterwards. It is not so with 
the Bushmen. ‘They are past-masters of the art of hunting, 
though_here I would mention that there are Bushmen and 
Bushmen. Those found near the colony and spread over the 
barren Kalahari country are a small, stunted race, dwarfed 
probably by scarcity of food and hard usage. The others are 
upright, tall, sinewy fellows, who with their skill in hunting 
and the abundance of game never suffer hunger, and who are 
looked upon, though small in number, with a certain amount 
of fear by the Bechuanas. I was very fond of the Bushmen. 
They tell the truth, which the Bechuana do not, and instead 
of being mere pot-hunters they are enthusiastic sportsmen, 
enjoying the work as much as yourself. When you are hunting 
with them, it is true, they leave all to you, and greatly delight 
in watching a tough fight with a savage bull, giving you full 
credit for your weapon and your use of it; but their tactics 
when alone are as follows. Taking up the spoor of, say, — 
five or six tuskers, they follow on until they see their quarry, — 
which, with their splendid sight, they do a long way off. A — 
handful of dust thrown up gives them the wind. Some half- — 
dozen or more men conceal themselves in pairs not far apart ~ 
in the line they hope the elephants will take. Two or three 1 
of the others, making a long défour, give them their wind, 7 
and as they move off, try to head them in the direction of the © 
i " 
Fe algy «lyr “ed. is A ti es LN —— 
