32 THE SCAVENGER BEETLE. Cuap. II. 



eland, the most magnificent of antelopes, would grace the 

 parks of our nobility, and its excellent flesh be a delicacy at 

 their tables. The noble esculent frog might prove a welcome 

 addition to the eatables of France. 



The scavenger beetle is one of the most useful of insects, for 

 it effectually answers the object indicated by the name. 

 Where they abound, as at Kuruman, the villages are clean. 

 No sooner are animal excretions dropped than, attracted by 

 the scent, the scavengers are heard coming booming up the 

 wind. They roll away the droppings of cattle in round pieces 

 often as large as billiard-balls till they reach a place proper by 

 its softness for excavating. They then dig the soil out from 

 beneath the ball, and, when it is let down into the ground and 

 covered, they lay their eggs within the mass. The larvae 

 devour the inside of their little globe before coming up to the 

 surface to begin life for themselves. The beetles with their 

 gigantic balls look like Atlas with the world on his shoulders. 

 Their jDrogression, however, is backwards, and, keeping their 

 heads down, they push with the hind legs, as if a boy 

 should roll a snowball with his feet, while standing on his 

 crown. 



In trying to benefit the tribes living under the Boers of the 

 Cashan mountains, I twice performed a journey of about three 

 hundred miles to the eastward of Kolobeng. Sechele had 

 become so obnoxious to the whites, that, though anxious to 

 accompany me, he dared not trust himself among them. His 

 independence and love of the English were his only faults. 

 In my last journey he gave me two servants on parting, " to 

 be," as he said, " his arms to serve me," and expressed his 

 regret that he could not go himself. " Suppose we went 

 north," I said, " would you come ?" This was the first 

 time I had thought of crossing the Desert to Lake Ngami.* 



When I reached the Boers and spoke to Mr. Hendrick 

 Potgeiter of the danger of hindoring the Gospel of Christ 

 among these poor savage**, he became greatly excited. He 



* Several words in the African languages begin with the ringing sound heard 

 in the end of the word " coming." If the wader puts an t to the beginning of 

 the name of the lake, as Ingami, and then sounds the i as little as possible, he will 

 have the correct pronunciation. Every vowel is sounded in all native words, and 

 the emphasis in pronunciation is put upon the penultimate. 



