272 ELEPHANT IN A PITFALL. [chap. ix. 



droves to drink, and there lie lay, just killed, and great 

 pieces of flesh were being cut off and hauled up from 

 his carcase. 



All this was delightful, and we offpacked our lean 

 oxen in the highest spirits about a quarter of a mile 

 from the water, in the midst of a thick grove of trees. 

 Amiral encamped near us ; we made a kraal and 

 settled down for at least a week's pleasuring. As soon 

 as the elephant was disposed of, I collected all the 

 chief Bushmen in a ring, and gave them tobacco and 

 so forth, and began asking them about the country 

 furtker on ahead. One of my men came to say that 

 he had just found a Bushman cooking with a large 

 iron pot ; this was a sure sign of the neighbourhood 

 of civilised man. The Bushman said that it was 

 given to them by people from a waggon some distance 

 to the east, and who had gone to the lake during the 

 previous rainy season. The man who had guided 

 the Kubabees Hottentots lived here — Toes-u-wap was 

 his melodious name. He and the other Bushman 

 wore great numbers of elephant hair necklaces, with 

 three or four beads strung on each of them ; they are, 

 as I now find, worked after the manner that the 

 English ladies call " tatting." Old Buffaloe's son 

 and Toes-u-wap were the only two who could under- 

 stand much of the language of the Hottentots ; they 

 interpreted for us to the other Bushmen as well as 

 they could, but our conversation was far from fluent. 

 Several of these Bushmen knew the Mationa language, 

 and as I had a little MS. Sichuana dictionary with 

 me, I asked the Sichuana names for sixty words; of 



