284 
TRAVELS IN 
firfl; thunder-ftorin after the winter, which they confider as fo 
infallible a token of the fammer having commenced, that they 
tear in pieces their ficin-coverings, throw them in the air, and 
dance for ieveral fucceffive nights. The fmall circular trodden 
places around their huts indicated their fondnefs for this 
amufement. His chearfulnefs is the more extraordinary, as 
the morfel he procures to fupport exiftence is earned with 
danger and fatigue. He neither cultivates the ground nor 
breeds cattle ; and his country yields few natural produdtions 
that ferve for food. The bulbs of the iris, and a few grami- 
neous roots of a bitter and pimgent tafte, are all that the vege- 
table kingdom aifords him. By the fearch of thefe the whole 
furface of the plains near the horde was fcratched. Another 
article of his food is the larvse of ants. Whether the foil of 
the grafly plains, near the Sea-Cow river, be too rich for the 
nature of thefe infeds, or whether they are kept under by the 
Bosjefmans, I will not take upon me to fay ; but an ant-hill, fo 
very common in moft parts vof Africa, is here a rare objedV. 
Holes now and then occurred, over which the hills of the 
infedt, demolifhed by this people, once had flood ; but they 
v/ere not very numerous. A third article, the larvae of locufts, 
he can occafionally obtain without much trouble ; but the pro- 
curing of the other muft coft him no fmall pains. 
Marks of their induftry appeared in every part of the coun- 
try, in their different plans of taking game : one was by mak- 
ing deep holes in the ground and covering them over with 
flicks and earth ; another by piling ftones on each other in 
rows, with openings or interruptions in fuch places as it was 
intended 
