SOUTHERN AFRICA. 419 
** party away, and remained triumphant over tlie dead body. 
^' At the distance of an hundred paces Tjaart Vander Walt 
" put a bullet into his carcase, after which we all fired, when, 
" having staggered for some time, he fell to the ground and 
" was put to death by the Hottentots." These natives pretend 
to say that whenever an elephant is provoked to kill his 
enemy, he tears the carcase in pieces and devours it : at 
least, such is their conclusion, as no vestige of the remains is 
ever found on the spot. Perhaps, however, it is more con- 
sistent to suppose that he carries it away to some place of 
concealment. It is a common observation that, numerous as 
these animals are in many parts of Southern Africa, neither 
the tusks nor any part of their skeletons are ever found 
above ground, which has led to the conclusion that the ele- 
phants must bury their dead. Vander Kemp is inclined to 
believe the fact to be true. One of his party having shot an 
elephant, they went the following morning with a vicAv of 
taking out its tusks, when they found from fifteen to twenty 
of these animals busily employed in removing the dead corpse 
with their snouts. 
On the 35th the expedition fell in with a party of Bosjes- 
mans, accompanied by their women and children, who drove 
along with them a few small spotted goats. These were the 
first party of this wretched race of men they had met with 
who possessed any living property. They gave them, as usual, 
a little food and tobacco^ when they proceeded quietly on their 
journey. As the part of the country they were now in was 
better covered than is commonly the case with good sweet 
grass, they determined to halt for twenty-four hours, in order to 
3 H 2 
