Chap. VII. LAND TORTOISES. 135 



we pushed on to Maskiie for its delicious waters. In travelling 

 through this country, the olfactory nerves are frequently excited 

 by a strong disagreeable odour. This is caused by a large jet- 

 black ant named " Leshonya." It is nearly an inch in length, and 

 emits a pungent smell when alarmed, in the same manner as the 

 skunk. The scent must be as volatile as ether, for, on irritating 

 the insect with a stick six feet long, the odour is instantly per- 

 ceptible. 



Occasionally we lighted upon land tortoises, which, with their 

 unlaid eggs, make a very agreeable dish. We saw many of their 

 trails leading to the salt fountain ; they must have come great 

 distances for tins health-giving article. In lieu thereof they often 

 devour wood-ashes. It is wonderful how tins reptile holds its 

 place in the country. "When seen, it never escapes. The young 

 are taken for the sake of their shells ; these are made into boxes, 

 wliich, filled with sweet-snielling roots, the women hang around 

 their persons. When older it is used as food, and the shell con- 

 verted into a rude basin to hold food or water. It owes its con- 

 tinuance neither to speed nor cunning. Its colour, yellow and 

 dark-brown, is well adapted, by its similarity to the surrounding 

 grass and brushwood, to render it indistinguishable ; and, though 

 it makes an awkward attempt to run on the approach of man, its 

 trust is in its bony covering, from which even the teeth of a hyaena 

 glance off foiled. When tins long-lived creature is about to deposit 

 her eggs, she lets herself into the ground by throwing the earth 

 up round her shell, until only the top is visible ; then covering up 

 the eggs, she leaves them until the rains begin to fall and the 

 fresh herbage appears ; the young ones then come out, their shells 

 still quite soft, and, unattended by their dam, begin the world for 

 themselves. Their food is tender grass and a plant named thutona, 

 and they frequently resort to heaps of ashes and places containing 

 efflorescence of the nitrates for the salts these contain. 



Inquiries among the Bushmen and Bakalahari, who are inti- 

 mately acquainted with the habits of the game, lead to the belief 

 that many diseases prevail among wild animals. I have seen the 

 kokong or gnu, kama or hartebeest, the tsessebe, kukama, and 

 the giraffe, so mangy as to be uneatable even by the natives. 

 Reference has already been made to the peripneumonia which cuts 

 off horses, tolos or koodoos. Great numbers also of zebras are 



