48 LOCUSTS, FKOGS, ETC., USED AS FOOD. 



pendent on Kuruman for supplies of corn. Once we were re- 

 duced to living on bran, to convert which into fine meal we had to 

 grind it three times over. We were much in want of animal food, 

 which seems to be a greater necessary of life there than vegetari- 

 ans would imagine. Being alone, we could not divide the butcher- 

 meat of a slaughtered animal with a prospect of getting a return 

 with regularity. Sechele had, by right of chieftainship, the breast 

 of every animal slaughtered either at home or abroad, and he most 

 obligingly sent us a liberal share during the whole period of our 

 sojourn. But these supplies were necessarily so irregular that we 

 were sometimes fain to accept a dish of locusts. These are quite 

 a blessing in the country, so much so that the rain-doctors some- 

 times promised to bring them by their incantations. The locusts 

 are strongly vegetable in taste, the flavor varying with the plants 

 on which they feed. There is a physiological reason why locusts 

 and honey should be eaten together. Some are roasted and 

 pounded into meal, which, eaten with a little salt, is palatable. It 

 will keep thus for months. Boiled, they are disagreeable ; but 

 when they are roasted I should much prefer locusts to shrimps, 

 though I would avoid both if possible. 



In traveling we sometimes suffered considerably from scarcity 

 of meat, though not from absolute want of food. This was felt 

 more especially by my children ; and the natives, to show their 

 sympathy, often gave them a large kind of caterpillar, which they 

 seemed to relish ; these insects could not be unwholesome, for the 

 natives devoured them in large quantities themselves. 



Another article of which our children partook with eagerness 

 was a very large frog, called "Matlametlo."* 



These enormous frogs, which, when cooked, look like chickens, 

 are supposed by the natives to fall down from thunder-clouds, 

 because after a heavy thunder-shower the pools, which are filled 

 and retain water a few days, become instantly alive with this 

 loud-croaking, pugnacious game. This phenomenon takes place 

 in the driest parts of the desert, and in places where, to an ordi- 

 nary observer, there is not a sign of life. Having been once 

 benighted in a district of the Kalahari where there was no 



* The Pyxicephalus adspersus of Dr. Smith. Length of head and hody, 5£ 

 inches ; fore legs, 3 inches ; hind legs, 6 inches. Width of head posteriorly, 3 

 inches ; of body, 4£ inches. 



