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Transactions of the Boyal Society of South Africa. 
get her. The girl has the band which Bush people wear round the 
waist, given her by the parents, and that is all that is necessary on 
either side. 
Q. So there is no marriage ceremony ? 
A. None at all. There was no hut to be built, because we all slept in 
one cave. 
Q. How were the children treated ? 
A. The children were treated kindly. They got their share of all we 
had. When young they were given decoctions of various herbs and roots. 
One thing the women made was a kind of thin porridge of the white ants 
found inside the anthills, mixed with a bulb called ''incuwa" (according 
to Silayi's description of incuwa, it may be the spiraxis). The ants were 
roasted and water added afterwards ; the bulb was pounded and dried, 
and then ground up to mix with the ants. I have tasted this dish and 
like it. 
A custom I noticed among the women was to besmear themselves 
with the contents of the paunch of oxen we slaughtered. They would 
afterwards go to the nearest water and wash themselves. The men as a 
rule are quite naked, and the women were pretty much the same. 
I was surprised to find how well the women could swim. There are 
many large streams rising in the Drakensberg, and these we frequently 
had to cross. The Bushmen do not practise the circumcision rites of the 
Kafirs, nor have they "intonjane." Boys and girls arrive at manhood 
and womanhood on marriage. 
Parents are fond of their children, and, as a people, they are affec- 
tionate in their ways, but very passionate, and when in a rage don't care 
what they do. A quarrel between a man and his wife would generally 
result in dangerous weapons being used. 
Q. Had they any way of hearing and deciding disputes ? 
A. We had disputes sometimes about game and other things. These 
were " talked " by Ngqabayi, the chief, and his judgments were respected. 
Q. How many wives had Ngqabayi ? 
A. He had two ; the rest had only one wife each. 
Q. Did you see the poison prepared for the arrows ? 
A. The poison was prepared by Ngqabayi, the chief. He used the root 
of a shrub mixed with the bark of a tree. I know the shrub, but not the 
kind of tree from which he got the bark. The root and bark were boiled 
together in a clay pot until they became a black-looking jelly. It took 
days to prepare the poison ; when ready, Ngqabayi served it out. The 
poison was deadly. Hartebeest died from it quickly, also gnus. Buffaloes 
were stronger and lived longer. If we wounded a buffalo in the daytime 
we expected to find it dead the next morning. 
Q. Had they witch doctors ? 
