SOUTHERN AFRICA. 379 
' " piece of meat and an ostrich egg-shell full of water : as 
" soon as this little stock is exhausted, the poor deserted 
" creatui'e must perish by hunger or become the prey of wild 
" beasts. Many of these wild Hottentots live by plunder 
" and murder, and are guilty of the most horrid and atro- 
" cious actions. Such," says he, " are the people to whom 
" the providence of God has directed our course." 
Setting aside the sheer nonsense of the lion roaring before 
the cavern, which the easy credulity of Mr. Kicherer led him 
to believe as a fact, it is evident on the face of the above 
statement that the chief, and perhaps the sole, motive for 
destroying or abandoning the helpless and the destitute, the 
infants and the aged, is their extreme indigence. Without 
any covering to protect his body from the vicissitudes of the 
weather, without possessions or property of any kind except 
his bow and his quiver of arrows, the Bosjesman exists from 
day to day on what the fortune of the chase may throw within 
his reach, on a few bulbous roots which the barren soil 
scantily supplies, on the eggs of ants and the larvae of locusts ; 
and when these all fail, he is glad to have recourse to toads, 
mice, snakes, and lizards. To satisfy the present craving of 
the stomach is his grand object ; and this accomplished in its 
fullest extent, he seems to enjoy a short-lived species of hap- 
piness, which either shews itself in an exhilaration of spirits 
not unlike that which usually attends the first stage of intoxi- 
cation, or throws him into a profound sleep. Among such a 
people it is not surprizing that infants and aged persons 
should be left to perish. If the dread of pinching pcjverty 
and the horrors of absolute want are sufficient to urge the 
3 c 2 
