1 8 THE HOPO. 



kamas or hartebeests, kokongs or gnus, pallas, rhinoce- 

 roses, &c., congregated at some fountains near Kolobeng, 

 and the trap called " hopo " was constructed in the lands 

 adjacent for their destruction. The hopo consists of two 

 hedges in the form of the letter V, which are very high and 

 thick near the angle. Instead of the hedges being joined 

 there, they are made to form a lane of about fifty yards in 

 length, at the extremity of which a pit is formed, six or 

 eight feet deep, and about twelve or fifteen in breadth and 

 length. Trunks of trees are laid across the margins of the 

 pit, and more especially over that nearest the lane where 

 the animals are expected to leap in, and over that farthest 

 from the lane where it is supposed they will attempt to 

 escape after they are in. The trees form an overlapping 

 border, and render escape almost impossible. The whole 

 is carefully decked with short green rushes, making the pit 

 like a concealed pitfall. As the hedges are frequently 

 about a mile long, and about as much apart at their extre- 

 mities, a tribe making a circle three or four miles round the 

 country adjacent to the opening, and gradually closing up, 

 are almost sure to enclose a large body of game. Driving 

 it up with shouts to the narrow part of the hopo, men 

 secreted there throw their javelins into the affrighted 

 herds, and on the animals rush to the opening presented 

 at the converging hedges, and into the pit till that is full of 

 a living mass. Some escape by running over the others, 

 as a Smithfield market dog does over the sheeps' backs. 

 It is a frightful scene. The men, wild with excitement, 

 spear the lovely animals with mad delight : others of the 

 poor creatures, borne down by the weight of their dead and 

 dying companions, every now and then make the whole 

 mass heave in their smothering agonies. 



The Bakwains often killed between sixty and seventy 

 head of large game at the different hopos in a single week ; 

 and as every one, both rich and poor, partook of the prey, 

 the meat counteracted the bad effects of an exclusively 

 vegetable diet. When the poor, who had no salt, were 

 forced to live entirely on roots, they were often troubled 

 with indigestion. Such cases we had frequent oppor- 

 tunities of seeing at other times, for, the district being 

 destitute of salt, the rich alone could afford to buy it. The 

 native doctors, aware of the cause of the malady, usually 

 prescribed some of that ingredient with their medicines. 

 The doctors themselves had none, so the poor resorted to 



