GRAPES. 187 



The Bechuanas will keep on the sick-list as long as they feel 

 any weakness ; so I at last began to be anxious that they should 

 make a little exertion to get forward on our way. One of them, 

 however, happening to move a hundred yards from the wagon, 

 fell down, and, being unobserved, remained the whole night in 

 the pouring rain totally insensible ; another was subjected to fre- 

 quent swooning ; but, making beds in the wagons for these our 

 worst cases, with the help of the Bakwain and the Bushmen, we 

 moved slowly on. We had to nurse the sick like children ; and, 

 like children recovering from illness, the better they became the 

 more impudent they grew. This was seen in the peremptory 

 orders they would give with their now piping voices. Nothing 

 that we did pleased them ; and the laughter with which I received 

 their ebullitions, though it was only the real expression of glad- 

 ness at their recovery, and amusement at the ridiculous part they 

 acted, only increased their chagrin. The want of power in the 

 man who guided the two front oxen, or, as he was called, the 

 "leader," caused us to be entangled with trees, both standing and 

 fallen, and the labor of cutting them down was even more severe 

 than ordinary ; but, notwithstanding an immense amount of toil, 

 my health continued good. 



We wished to avoid the tsetse of our former path, so kept a 

 course on the magnetic meridian from Lurilopepe. The necessity 

 of making a new path much increased our toil. We were, however, 

 rewarded in lat. 18° with a sight we had not enjoyed the year 

 before, namely, large patches of grape-bearing vines. There they 

 stood before my eyes ; but the sight was so entirely unexpected 

 that I stood some time gazing at the clusters of grapes with which 

 they were loaded, with no more thought of plucking than if I had 

 been beholding them in a dream. The Bushmen know and eat 

 them; but they are not well flavored on account of the great 

 astringency of the seeds, which are in shape and size like split 

 peas. The elephants are fond of the fruit, plant, and root alike. 

 I here found an insect which preys on ants; it is about an inch 

 and a quarter long, as thick as a crow-quill, and covered with black 

 hair. It puts its head into a little hole in the ground, and quivers 

 its tail rapidly ; the ants come near to see it, and it snaps up each 

 as he comes within the range of the forceps on its tail. As its 

 head is beneath the ground, it becomes a question how it can 



