316 
TWO OLD WOMEN IN SEARCH OF WILD ROOTS. 
2, 3 July, 
was given : when we rode forward without hesitation, and on reach- 
ing home, found all well. We had been just three hours and ten 
minutes on our return ; which corresponds with the relative propor- 
tion usually supposed to exist between the pace of a draught-ox, 
and that of a saddle-horse, after making a proper allowance for the 
greater degree in which the latter is retarded by a sandy road. 
Srd. The two Bachapins, whom we saw at the Kruman, had 
assured us that for several days-journeys we should find but little 
game, as the grass was dried up, and the animals had removed 
farther northward, where the herbage still remained green. This 
account was confirmed by Speelman, who reported that he had not 
fallen in with any, although the ground was every where imprinted 
with their footsteps. 
He had observed two natives at a distance in the plain, who im- 
mediately on seeing him, concealed themselves under the bushes. 
He thought it not advisable to approach them, as these movements 
appeared suspicious ; but, taking particular notice of the spot where 
they disappeared, he came home and informed Muchunka, who, fol- 
lowing his directions, went to them and brought these formidable 
strangers home, when lo ! they proved to be two old women^ who had 
left their dwellings early in the morning, to seek at this distance 
their daily food, a few wild roots the scanty gains of many hours* 
search. On seeing the hunters, whose costume, being different from 
that of their own countrymen, had alarmed them, they hid them- 
selves through fear ; but were easily persuaded by Muchunka to come 
to the waggons, where he promised them a good meal. 
From the meagre looks of these women, one might be authorised 
in supposing them not to have had, for many weeks, a sufficiency of 
food. The eldest of the two might have been mistaken for a Bush- 
woman ; and her features proved that her parents had belonged to 
the Hottentot race, though she was herself a Bichuana the wife 
of a poor herdsman. They were provided only with a pointed stick 
to dig up these roots, and a dirty leathern bag in which they carried 
them. On examination these appeared to be of some species of 
Ornithogalum ; but being without leaves or flower, this opinion was 
