Chap. VII. 
LAND TOETOISES. 
135 
we pushed on to'Mashiie for its delicious waters. In travelling 
through this country, the olfactory nerves are frequently excited 
by a strong disagreeable odour. This is caused by a large jet- 
black ant named Leshonya.” It is nearly an inch in length, and 
emits a pungent smell when alarmed, in the same manner as the 
slmnk. The scent must be as volatile as ether, for, on irritating 
the insect with a stick six feet long, the odour is instantly per¬ 
ceptible. 
Occasionally we lighted upon land tortoises, wliich, mth their 
unlaid eggs, make a very agreeable dish. We saw many of their 
trails leading to the salt fountain; they must have come great 
distances for this health-giving article. In lieu thereof they often 
devour wood-ashes. It is wonderful how this reptile holds its 
place in the country. Wlien seen, it never escapes. The young 
are taken for the sake of their shells; these are made mto boxes, 
wliich, filled with sweet-smelling roots, the women hang around 
their persons. When older it is used as food, and the shell con¬ 
verted mto a rude basin to hold food or water. It owes its con¬ 
tinuance neither to speed nor cunning. Its colour, yeUow and 
dark-brown, is well adapted, by its similarity to the surrounding 
grass and brushwood, to render it indistinguishable; and, though 
it makes an awkward attempt to run on the approach of man, its 
trust is in its bony covering, from wliich even the teeth of a hyaena 
glance off foiled. Wlien this long-lived creature is about to deposit 
her eggs, she lets herself into the ground by throwing the earth 
up round her shell, until only the top is visible; then covering up 
the eggs, she leaves them until the rains begin to fall and the 
fresh herbage appears; the young ones then come out, their shells 
still quite soft, and, unattended by their dam, begin the world for 
themselves. Their food is tender grass and a plant named thotona, 
and they frequently resort to heaps of ashes and places containing 
efflorescence of the nitrates for the salts these contain. 
Inquiries among the Buslimen and Bakalahari, who are inti¬ 
mately acquainted with the habits of the game, lead to the belief 
that many diseases prevail among wild animals. I have seen the 
kokong or gnu, kama or hartebeest, the tsessebe, kukama, and 
the guaffe, so mangy as to be uneatable even by the natives. 
Reference has abeady been made to the peripneumonia which cuts 
off horses, tolos or koodoos. Great numbers also of zebras are 
