50 THE BAKALAHARI. Chap. II. 



agriculture and domestic animals. They lioe their gardens annu- 

 ally, though often all they can hope for is a supply of melons and 

 pumpkins. And they carefully rear small herds of goats, though 

 I have seen them lift water for them out of small wells with a bit 

 of ostrich egg-shell, or by spoonfuls. They generally attach 

 themselves to influential men in the different Bechuana tribes 

 living adjacent to then desert home, in order to obtain supplies 

 of spears, knives, tobacco, and dogs, in exchange for the skins of 

 the animals they may kill. These are small carnivora of the 

 feline species ; including two species of jackal, the dark and the 

 golden ; the former, " motlose " (Megalotis capensis or Cape 

 fennec), has the warmest fur the country yields ; the latter, 

 " pukuye" (Canis mesomelas and C. aureus), is very handsome 

 when made into the skin mantle called kaross. Next in value 

 follow the " tsipa " or small ocelot (Felis nigripes), the " tuane " 

 or lynx, the wild cat, the spotted cat, and other small animals. 

 Great numbers of puti {duiker) and puruhuru (steinbuck) 

 skins are got, too, besides those of lions, leopards, panthers, and 

 hyaenas. During the time I was in the Bechuana country between 

 twenty and thirty thousand skins were made up into karosses ; 

 part of them were worn by the inhabitants, and part sold to 

 traders : many, I believe, find their way to China. The Bak- 

 wains bought tobacco from the eastern tribes, then purchased 

 skins with it from the Bakalahari, tanned them, and sewed them 

 into karosses, then went south to purchase heifer-calves with them, 

 cows being the highest form of riches known, as I have often 

 noticed from their asking " if Queen Victoria had many cows." 

 The compact they enter into is mutually beneficial, but injustice 

 and wrong are often perpetrated by one tribe of Bechuanas going 

 among the Bakalahari of another tribe, and compelling them to 

 deliver up the skins which they may be keeping for their friends. 

 They are a timid race, and in bodily development often resemble 

 the aborigines of Australia. They have thin legs and arms, and 

 large protruding abdomens caused by the coarse indigestible food 

 they eat. Then children's eyes lack lustre. I never saw them 

 at play. A few Bechuanas may go into a village of Bakalahari, 

 and domineer over the whole with impunity ; but when these 

 same adventurers meet the Bushmen, they are fain to change 

 their manners to fawning sycophancy ; they know that, if the 



