Notes on Namaqualand Buslimcn. 
1]5 
in wild exultation. Word was sent far and wide to all and a great feast 
and dance was held. The fall of the animals produced a deep depression 
in the ground and could still be seen years afterwards, together with 
great heaps of the bleached bones of the unfortunate springbuck. 
The Bushman roasts or boils all flesh before eating, roasting a hare 
whole — skin and all — under the coals and hot ash. They eat all kinds 
of animals — the hyaena, jackal, leopard, all buck and wild beasts; they 
do not disdain the crawling worm. 
They never build any proper huts, only making a slight shelter of 
grass and twigs. When staying any length of time at a place they prefer 
to be on the low-lying hills, right in amongst the stones, where they are 
invisible, but from whence they can obtain a good view of the game grazing 
in the plains. They sometimes sit for hours — even days — watching and 
making plans to waylay the quarry, which they do as the game moves 
past into the hills. Sometimes they divide, one party approaching the 
animals, the other going a circular way, driving them towards the first 
who, when sufficiently near, use their bows and arrows. 
They are wonderfully cunning in their methods. Occasionally they 
will creep up to an antelope or a hare flat on their stomach ; they will 
tie a bundle of grass or a bush on their head so as to be unnoticed by the 
antelope. If it is a big animal, like the gemsbuck, for instance, they 
shoot it with a long poisoned arrow, and when the wounded animal runs 
away they patiently track it, showing remarkable skill in the pursuit. 
They never lose the tracks (spoors) of an animal, knowing that it will 
drop sooner or later from the effects of the poison. When it is found 
dead they wait a little while for the carcass to get cold, by which time 
it is supposed that the poison has found its way back to the place where 
the animal was wounded. Then they cut out the flesh surrounding the 
wound, so as to remove all the poison, after which process they eat the 
remaining meat with safety. 
The poison for the arrows is obtained from different substances ; snake 
poison is used, also that taken from a most deadly large spider called 
**baviaan's spinekop " (5); they also use the milky juice taken from a 
species of Euphorbia called "Boomgift" in Dutch, and which grows 
in the Langebergen. 
They do not use any medicinal plants for ailments ; they practise 
w^itchcraft to remove illness. The old women are called to attend a 
patient, and are supposed to remove the owl or wild cat or some such 
-evil thing which is causing the pain by snorting round the patient — 
especially round the seat of pain. 
The Bushmen keep no stock, or domestic animals ; they never cultivate 
anything ; they are not a warlike race ; they acknowledge no chief or 
leader, but wander about in groups. They have no marriage customs, 
