A Single
Opening Is Left For The Admission Of The Game.
This done, the
women conceal themselves behind the wormwood, and wait patiently
for the coming of the antelopes; which sometimes enter this
spacious trap in considerable numbers.
As soon as they are in,
the women give the signal, and the men hasten to play their part.
But one of them enters the pen at a time; and, after chasing the
terrified animals round the inclosure, is relieved by one of his
companions. In this way the hunters take their turns, relieving
each other, and keeping up a continued pursuit by relays, without
fatigue to themselves. The poor antelopes, in the end, are so
wearied down, that the whole party of men enter and dispatch them
with clubs; not one escaping that has entered the inclosure. The
most curious circumstance in this chase is, that an animal so
fleet and agile as the antelope, and straining for its life,
should range round and round this fated inclosure, without
attempting to overleap the low barrier which surrounds it. Such,
however, is said to be the fact; and such their only mode of
hunting the antelope.
Notwithstanding the absence of all comfort and convenience in
their habitations, and the general squalidness of their
appearance, the Shoshokoes do not appear to be destitute of
ingenuity. They manufacture good ropes, and even a tolerably fine
thread, from a sort of weed found in their neighborhood; and
construct bowls and jugs out of a kind of basket-work formed from
small strips of wood plaited:
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