42 
LOCUSTS, FROGS, ETC., USED AS FOOD. 
Chap. II. 
dependent on Kuruman for supplies of corn. Once we were 
reduced to living on bran, to convert which into fine meal we had 
to grind it tlu’ee times over. We were much in want of animal 
food, wliich seems to be a greater necessary of life there than 
vegetarians would imagine. Being alone, we could not divide the 
butcher-meat of a slaughtered animal with a prospect of getting 
a return with regularity. Sechele had by right of chieffcainship 
the breast of every animal slaughtered either at home or abroad, 
and he most obligingly sent us a liberal share during the whole 
period of our sojourn. But these supplies were necessarily so 
hregular, that we were sometimes fain to accept a dish of locusts. 
These are quite a blessing in the country; so much so, that the 
rain-doctors sometimes promised to bring them by their incanta¬ 
tions. The locusts are strongly vegetable in taste, the flavour 
varying with the plants on which they feed. There is a physiolo¬ 
gical reason why locusts and honey should be eaten together. 
Some are roasted and pounded into meal, which eaten with a 
little salt is palatable. It will keep thus for months. Boiled 
they are disagreeable; but when they are roasted, I should much 
prefer locusts to shrimps, though I would avoid both if possible. 
In travelling we sometimes suffered considerably from scarcity 
of meat, though not from absolute want of food. This was felt 
more especially by my cliildren; and the natives, to show their 
sympathy, often gave them a large kind of caterpillar, which 
they seemed to rehsh; these insects could not be unwholesome, 
for the natives devoured them in large quantities themselves. 
Another article of which our children partook with eagerness 
was a very large frog, called Matlametlo.” ^ 
These enormous frogs, which, when cooked, look like chickens, 
are supposed by the natives to fall down from thunder-clouds, 
because after a heavy thunder-shower the pools, which are filled 
and retain water a few days, become instantly alive with this 
loud-croaking pugnacious game. This phenomenon takes place 
in the driest parts of the desert, and in places where to an ordi¬ 
nary observer there is not a sign of life. Haiing been once 
benighted in a district of the Kalahari where there was no 
The Pyxicephaliis adspersiis of Dr. Smith. Length of head and body, 
5^ inches ; forelegs, 3 inches ; hindlegs, 6 inches. Width of head posteriorly, 
3 inches ; of body, 4^ inches. 
