AT 
in their favour among the Christians of Egypt, it may be inferred that some superstition was formerly connected with them, 
and that they were suspended in the temples of the ancient Egyptians as they still are in the Churches of the Copts. Vast 
numbers of entire skins are sold by the Ethiopians to the merchants of Alexandria, for exportation to Europe, where they 
oceupy so high a place in female estimation; those feathers being more yalued by the fair, that have been plucked from the 
wing of the living bird, than any which are obtained from the defunct subject, the latter being lighter, and more liable from 
their dryness to the attacks of worms. 
Extremely elegant parasols are manufactured by the Bechuana, who fix the larger plumes around a circular piece of 
leather, through the centre of which a long stick is thrust; and it is a pleasant sight to behold a savage, whose skin, 
somewhat coarser than the hide of a rhinoceros, might vie in point of colour with a boot, protecting his complexion by the 
interposition of such an umbrella, The small black feathers of the body, being strung on a strip of leather, and so twisted 
around a long staff as to resemble the nodding plumes of a hearse, often render most important service to the owner ; the 
implement, if flourished before the eyes of a charging beast, and then planted in the ground, usually betraying him, half 
blinded with fury, to vent his rage upon it instead of upon the hunter. 
We more than once fell in with a large party of Corannas engaged in an attempt to tire out an Ostrich on foot, a . 
feat which they are said sometimes to achieve, knocking him off his legs by squaling with a club of rhinoceros horn, fashioned 
like a hockey stick. Disguised in the complete spoils of the dead bird, and mimicking all the motions of the live one, by 
pecking at the tops of bushes, and occasionally rubbing its head against its body to brush away the flies, the puny Bushman 
experiences no difficulty in mixing with a troop of wild animals, and can even deceive the species whose spoils he has bor- 
rowed, At the twang of his tiny bow, which rather resembles a child’s toy than a mortal weapon, away scours the stricken 
victim with the herd, in dire consternation; and infinitely more alarmed than all, off scuds the unsuspected impostor with 
them, again propelling a poisoned shaft as soon as the first panic has subsided. Incredible is the destruction committed in 
this manner —a slender reed, only slightly barbed with a portion of the leg-bone of an Ostrich, embued with a subtle poison, 
and launched with unerring dexterity, being sufficient to effect the death of the most powerful animal. 
Strabo relates that a somewhat similar stratagem was practised in days of yore by the inhabitants of a part of Abyssinia. 
who from the circumstance of their subsisting almost exclusively upon the flesh of the Ostrich were denominated Struthophagi, 
and who, covering themselves with the skin, and passing the right hand into the neck, so as to impart to it the motions exhibited 
by that bird, scattered grain with the left in order to allure the quarry into the snares which had been set for them, Oppian 
likewise mentions the employment of snares into which Ostriches were driven en masse, by a brisk pursuit with horses and 
dogs; but for a great length of time the Arabs have used horses alone in the chase, following it with the greatest success 
when the birds unite in yast numbers, and traverse the desert like an army of cavalry. Never putting them to their speed, 
but. driving the troop as much as possible against the wind, and repeatedly intersecting its course by judicious riding, the hanters 
harass them incessantly; and having fairly wearied them down, rush in and knock them over with cudgels, to avoid sullying the 
lustre of the feathers, In this manner some are not unfrequently taken alive, and having been bereft of their costly plumes, 
are restored to liberty. When slain, the throat is opened, and a ligature being passed below the incision, several of the hunters 
raise the bird by the head and feet, and shake and drag him about until they obtain from the aperture nearly twenty pounds 
of a substance of mingled blood and fat, of the consistence of coagulated oil, which, under the denomination of manteque, is 
employed in the preparation of dishes, and the cure of various maladies, In an old subject especially, the flesh is excessively 
coarse and stringy, of a very dark color, resembling beef in grain and flavor. Yet by the Romans it was very commonly 
eaten in the time of the Emperors; Apicius gives a recipe for the best sauce; and the imperial glutton Heliogabalus, in one 
of his fantastic whims, had the brains of no fewer than six hundred served up at a single repast! 
During the breeding season, the South African Ostrich associates himself with several females, which deposit their huge 
eggs in one common nest, if we may so term a shallow cavity, simply scooped in the sand, of such dimensions, that it may 
be conveniently covered by each mamma in rotation. No attempt at concealment is made, nor is the smallest particle of any 
kind of material employed, the eggs being nevertheless surrounded by a shallow embankment, and thus prevented from rolling 
away. In the middle of the day, when the heat of the sun is sufficient to preserve them at a proper temperature, the nest 
is abandoned: and during the night, when marauding visits are to be anticipated from beasts of prey, the male is said to 
relieve his mates of the responsible office of incubation —those cocks whose feathers have become draggled by this piece of gal- 
lantry, being named nest-birds by the Hottentots, who, be it known, are no despicable connoisseurs in Ostrich plumes, and 
wear them on all occasions when desirous of making a conquest. The ground color of the egg is pure white, marbled with 
clear yellow, and the number found in one place has been known to exceed sixty, the hens continuing to lay during the whole 
period of incubation, which extends to about forty days, and depositing surplus eggs outside, to serve, it is pretended, as 
nourishment for the young birds, until they shall be capable of digesting the hard and acrid food upon which the adults 
subsist. The chicks are about the size of a pullet, and walk the moment they are out of the shell, continuing, in South- 
ern Africa, to receive assistance from the mother for a considerable time, although between the tropics, they are said to 
be left at once to their own devices—the vivifying heat of the sun having in the first instance relieved the mother alto- 
gether from the cares of incubation, 
The discovery of an Ostrich’s nest was an incident of very frequent occurrence, and any change in the monotony of 
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