HUNTING BY BUSHMEN. 
173 
it long before the theft is even discovered. In 
hunting, also, they are extremely expert, and 
pursue with pertinacity, and wonderful endur- 
ance and speed, the quaggas, zebras, hippopo- 
tami, ostrich, and bustard ; as also the various 
kinds of buck and antelope, which traverse the 
African deserts in such numberless herds. If 
they cannot succeed by their fleetness of foot, 
or with the aid of their wild, half-famished, 
and savage dogs, to come within bow shot of, 
or run down, their objects, they still follow them 
up ; and then, having covered the ground, to- 
wards evening, with snares and traps, they re- 
tire to a distance, and starting off in a side-long 
course, they try to head the game, and drive 
them back over the ground prepared, with these 
engines for their destruction. If they thus suc- 
ceed in embarrassing any of them, before the 
hapless beast has time to recover itself, they 
pounce upon it, and a poisoned arrow sends 
certain death where it strikes. 
Their stratagem for securing the ostrich, and 
also the kaop, (a species of antelope) as des- 
cribed by Sir J. E. Alexander, is worthy here of 
remark. "I was anxious to know," he says, 
" how the Boschmans manage to kill the kaop ; 
and remarking two light frames, covered with 
ostrich feathers, grey and black, on a tree, I 
asked them what they were. The Boschman 
