156 GRAPES — AN ANTEATER. 



our worst cases, with the help of the Bakwains and the 

 Bushmen, we moved slowly on. We had to nurse the sick 

 like children ; and, like children recovering from illness, 

 the better they became the more impudent they grew. 

 This was seen in the peremptory orders they would give 

 with their now piping voices. Nothing that we did pleased 

 them ; and the laughter with which I received their 

 ebullitions, though it was only the real expression of glad- 

 ness at their recovery, and amusement at the ridiculous 

 part they acted, only increased their chagrin. The want 

 of power in the man who guided the two front oxen, or, 

 as he was called, the " leader," caused us to be entangled 

 with trees, both standing and fallen, and the labour of cut- 

 ting them down was even more severe than ordinary ; 

 but notwithstanding an immense amount of toil, my health 

 continued good. 



We wished to avoid the tsetse of our former path, so 

 kept a course on the magnetic meridian from Ivurilopepe. 

 The necessity of making a new path much increased our 

 toil. We were, however, rewarded in lat. 18 with a sight 

 we had not enjoyed the year before, namely, large patches 

 of grape-bearing vines. There they stood before my 

 eyes ; but the sight was so entirely unexpected that I 

 stood some time gazing at the clusters of grapes with which 

 they were loaded, with no more thought of plucking than 

 if I had been beholding them in a dream. . The Bushmen 

 know and eat them ; but they are not well flavoured 

 on account of the great astringency of the seeds, which 

 are in shape and size like split peas. The elephants are 

 fond of the fruit, plant, and root alike. I here found an 

 insect which preys on ants ; it is about an inch and a 

 quarter long, as thick as a crow-quill, and covered with 

 black hair. It puts its head into a little hole in the ground, 

 and quivers its tail rapidly ; the ants come near to see it, 

 and it snaps up each as he comes within the range of the 

 forceps on its tail. As its head is beneath the ground, 

 it becomes a question how it can guide its tail to the ants. 

 It is probably a new species of ant-lion (Myrmeleon formi- 

 caleo), great numbers of which, both in the larvae and 

 complete state, are met with. The ground under every 

 tree is dotted over with their ingenious pitfalls, and the 

 perfect insect, the form of which most persons are familiar 

 with in the dragon-fly, may be seen using its tail in the 

 same active manner as this insect did. Two may often 



