It Requires
The Utmost Address Of The Bushmen, Crawling For Miles On Their Stomachs,
To Stalk Them Successfully; Yet The Quantity Of Feathers Collected Annually
Shows That The Numbers Slain Must Be Considerable, As Each Bird Has Only A Few
In The Wings And Tail.
The male bird is of a jet black glossy color,
with the single exception of the white feathers, which
Are objects of trade.
Nothing can be finer than the adaptation of those flossy feathers
for the climate of the Kalahari, where these birds abound;
for they afford a perfect shade to the body, with free ventilation
beneath them. The hen ostrich is of a dark brownish-gray color,
and so are the half-grown cocks.
The organs of vision in this bird are placed so high that he can
detect an enemy at a great distance, but the lion sometimes kills him.
The flesh is white and coarse, though, when in good condition, it resembles
in some degree that of a tough turkey. It seeks safety in flight;
but when pursued by dogs it may be seen to turn upon them and inflict a kick,
which is vigorously applied, and sometimes breaks the dog's back.
Chapter 8.
Effects of Missionary Efforts - Belief in the Deity -
Ideas of the Bakwains on Religion - Departure from their Country -
Salt-pans - Sour Curd - Nchokotsa - Bitter Waters -
Thirst suffered by the wild Animals - Wanton Cruelty in Hunting -
Ntwetwe - Mowana-trees - Their extraordinary Vitality -
The Mopane-tree - The Morala - The Bushmen - Their Superstitions -
Elephant-hunting - Superiority of civilized over barbarous Sportsmen -
The Chief Kaisa - His Fear of Responsibility - Beauty of the Country
at Unku - The Mohonono Bush - Severe Labor in cutting our Way -
Party seized with Fever - Escape of our Cattle -
Bakwain Mode of recapturing them - Vagaries of sick Servants -
Discovery of grape-bearing Vines - An Ant-eater -
Difficulty of passing through the Forest - Sickness of my Companion -
The Bushmen - Their Mode of destroying Lions - Poisons -
The solitary Hill - A picturesque Valley - Beauty of the Country -
Arrive at the Sanshureh River - The flooded Prairies -
A pontooning Expedition - A night Bivouac - The Chobe -
Arrive at the Village of Moremi - Surprise of the Makololo
at our sudden Appearance - Cross the Chobe on our way to Linyanti.
The Bakalahari, who live at Motlatsa wells, have always been
very friendly to us, and listen attentively to instruction conveyed to them
in their own tongue. It is, however, difficult to give an idea to a European
of the little effect teaching produces, because no one can realize
the degradation to which their minds have been sunk
by centuries of barbarism and hard struggling for the necessaries of life:
like most others, they listen with respect and attention,
but, when we kneel down and address an unseen Being, the position and the act
often appear to them so ridiculous that they can not refrain
from bursting into uncontrollable laughter. After a few services
they get over this tendency. I was once present when a missionary
attempted to sing among a wild heathen tribe of Bechuanas, who had no music
in their composition; the effect on the risible faculties of the audience
was such that the tears actually ran down their cheeks.
Nearly all their thoughts are directed to the supply of their bodily wants,
and this has been the case with the race for ages. If asked, then,
what effect the preaching of the Gospel has at the commencement
on such individuals, I am unable to tell, except that some
have confessed long afterward that they then first began to pray in secret.
Of the effects of a long-continued course of instruction
there can be no reasonable doubt, as mere nominal belief has never been
considered sufficient proof of conversion by any body of missionaries;
and, after the change which has been brought about by this agency,
we have good reason to hope well for the future - those I have myself
witnessed behaving in the manner described, when kindly treated in sickness
often utter imploring words to Jesus, and I believe sometimes really do
pray to him in their afflictions. As that great Redeemer of the guilty
seeks to save all he can, we may hope that they find mercy through His blood,
though little able to appreciate the sacrifice He made.
The indirect and scarcely appreciable blessings of Christian missionaries
going about doing good are thus probably not so despicable
as some might imagine; there is no necessity for beginning to tell
even the most degraded of these people of the existence of a God
or of a future state, the facts being universally admitted.
Every thing that can not be accounted for by common causes
is ascribed to the Deity, as creation, sudden death, etc.
"How curiously God made these things!" is a common expression;
as is also, "He was not killed by disease, he was killed by God."
And, when speaking of the departed - though there is naught
in the physical appearance of the dead to justify the expression -
they say, "He has gone to the gods," the phrase being identical with
"abiit ad plures".
On questioning intelligent men among the Bakwains as to their
former knowledge of good and evil, of God and the future state,
they have scouted the idea of any of them ever having been
without a tolerably clear conception on all these subjects.
Respecting their sense of right and wrong, they profess that
nothing we indicate as sin ever appeared to them as otherwise,
except the statement that it was wrong to have more wives than one;
and they declare that they spoke in the same way of the direct influence
exercised by God in giving rain in answer to prayers of the rain-makers,
and in granting deliverances in times of danger, as they do now,
before they ever heard of white men. The want, however,
of any form of public worship, or of idols, or of formal prayers or sacrifice,
make both Caffres and Bechuanas appear as among the most godless
races of mortals known any where.
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