26 THE HOPO. 



other things they snowed more intelligence than is to be 

 met with in our own uneducated peasantry. They are 

 remarkably accurate in their knowledge of cattle, sheep, 

 and goats, knowing exactly the kind of pasturage suited 

 to each; and they select with great judgment the varieties 

 of soil best suited to different kinds of grain. They are 

 also familiar with the habits of wild animals, and in 

 general are well up in the maxims which embody their 

 ideas of political wisdom. 



The place where we first settled with the Bakwains is 

 called Chonuane, and it happened to be visited, during the 

 first year of our residence there, by one of those droughts 

 which occur from "time to time in even the most favored 

 districts of Africa. 



The conduct of the people during this long-continued 

 drought was remarkably good. The women parted with 

 most of their ornaments to purchase corn from more for- 

 tunate tribes. The children scoured the country in search 

 of the numerous bulbs and roots which can sustain life, 

 and the men engaged in hunting. Yery great numbers of 

 the large game, buffaloes, zebras, giraffes, tsessebes, kamas 

 or hartebeests, kokongs or gnus, pallahs, rhinoceroses, &c, 

 congregated at some fountains near Kolobeng, and the trap 

 called "hopo" was constructed, in the lands adjacent, for 

 their destruction. The hopo consists of two hedges in the 

 form of the letter Y, which are very high and thick near 

 the angle. Instead of the hedges being joined there, they 

 are made to form a lane of about fifty yards in length, at, 

 the extremity of which a pit is formed, six or eight feet 

 deep, and about twelve or fifteen in breadth and length. 

 Trunks of trees are laid across the- margin of the pit, and I 

 more especially over that nearest the lane where the ani^H 

 mals are expected to leap in, and over that farthest from^ 

 the lane where it is supposed they will attempt to escape 

 after they are in. The trees form an overlapping border 

 and render escape almost impossible. The whole is care- * 

 fully decked with short green rushes, making the pit like 



