“It is their custom.  They starve for days, and then gorge in this way when an opportunity offers, which is but seldom.  Their calendar, such as it is, is mainly from recollections of feasting; and I will answer for it, that if one Bushman were on some future day to ask another when such a thing took place, he would reply, just before or just after the white men killed the buffaloes.”

“How do they live in general?”

“They live upon roots at certain seasons of the year; upon locusts when a flight takes place; upon lizards, beetles—­any thing.  Occasionally they procure game, but not very often.  They are obliged to lie in wait for it, and wound it with their poisoned arrows, and then they follow its track and look for it the next day.  Subtle as the poison is they only cut out the part near the wound, and eat the rest of the animal.  They dig pit-holes for the hippopotamus and rhinoceros and occasionally take them.  They poison the pools for the game also; but their living is very precarious, and they often suffer the extremities of hunger.”

“Is that the cause, do you imagine, of their being so diminutive a race, Swinton?”

“No doubt of it.  Continual privation and hardships from generation to generation have, I have no doubt, dwindled them down to what you see.”

“How is it that these Bushmen are so familiar?  I thought that they were savage and irreclaimable.”

“They are what are termed tame Bushmen; that is, they have lived near the farmers, and have, by degrees, become less afraid of the Europeans.  Treated kindly, they have done good in return to the farmers by watching their sheep, and performing other little services, and have been rewarded with tobacco.  This has given them confidence to a certain degree.  But we must expect to meet with others that are equally wild, and who will be very mischievous; attempting to drive off our cattle, and watching in ambush all round our caravan, ready for any pilfering that they can successfully accomplish; and then we shall discover that we are in their haunts without even seeing them.”

“How so?”

“Because it will only be by their thefts that we shall find it out.  But it is time for bed, and as to-morrow is Sunday you will have a day of rest, which I think you both require.”

“I do,” replied Alexander, “so good-night to you both.”

CHAPTER XXII.

As arranged, they did not travel on the Sunday.  Early in the morning the oxen and horses and sheep were turned out to pasture; all except the horse which had been ridden by Alexander on the preceding day, and which was found to be suffering so much that they took away a large quantity of blood from him before he was relieved.