42 LOCUSTS, FROGS, ETC., USED AS FOOD. Chap. II. 



dependent on Kuruman for supplies of corn. Once we were 

 reduced 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 

 vegetarians 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 sometimes promised to bring them by their incanta- 

 tions. The locusts are strongly vegetable in taste, the flavour 

 varying with the plants on which they feed. There is a physiolo- 

 gical 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 travelling 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, winch 

 they seemed to relish ; these insects could not be unwholesome, 

 for the natives devoured them in large quantities themselves. 



Another article of winch 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, winch are filled 

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

 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 body, 

 5^ inches ; forelegs, 3 inches ; hindlegs, 6 inches. Width of head posteriorly, 

 3 inches ; of body, 4£ inches. 



