Notes on Namaqualand Busliinen. 
119 
their confidence they answered readily diverse questions, the veracity of 
their answers being tested by repetition of the query at different times, 
and careful cross-questioning ; for it was but too apparent that they were 
anxious to please. I suggested that they should make me a ! Kioe ka 
! ! Kha, or digging stick. They demurred ; they had no stick, no stone, no 
springbok horn to make one with. But on their being shown a photo- 
graph of one such implement found in their own home, and one of their 
household chattels, and being further provided with what they said they 
had not, they made one, in the manner mentioned by Miss Currle. The 
stick was the w^alking-stick used by one of the men, but the stone was 
fixed a little below the middle, not by the thickness of the wood, but by a 
wooden w^edge inserted under the stone, at a part where after trial it was 
found that the stick was well balanced. The horn-shod point is used 
slantingly and not vertically in digging. The two men and the women had 
never heard of the stone and stick being used for detecting the presence of 
white ants under the ground, but only for opening the ant-hills, and digging 
out roots and bulbs. As for the ! Kive or perforated stones they were 
occasionally picked by them in the veld. No one with whom they were 
acquainted, meaning the Bush people, knew how to make these stones. 
They had been made by people who lived long before their own forbears. 
They were quite positive of that. 
The two youths knew nothing about these ! Kiues, or their use. 
(2) Boivs and Arrows. 
Bows and arrows were of two sizes. The longer bow stands some five 
feet in length, and its use requires not only great dexterity but also extreme 
strength. I have it from a farmer in the Carnarvon District that in bend- 
ing his bow at the fullest " the shoulder-blades of a Bushman could be 
seen coming together." This is, of course, a metaphoric way of explain- 
ing the great strain on the muscles of the arms and back of the Archer. 
(3) Venom of Spider. 
The " babiaans spinekops " are extremely large ground spiders very 
common in South Africa; but their bite is not " most deadly," in spite of 
the belief of the country people, although it is extremely painful. The 
base of the colonial Bush poison is snake venom with the adjunction of 
the " boomgift," Amaryllis toxicaria, or other plants. In the Kalahari the 
Bush races profess to use the grub of a beetle for the concoction of 
this poison. 
(4) They never Su7Tender. 
I am indebted to Mr. W. A. Eussell for the following : Mr. , 
Calvinia District, told me that one of his earliest recollections was 
