Besides the carvings that I collected, I succeeded in getting several of the curious tools, consisting simply of triangular pieces of flint, with which the outlines of the engravings are cut; these are likewise used for several domestic purposes. Another implement not uncommon among them was a heavy stone fastened to the thicker end of a pointed stick, sometimes 3 feet long, though occasionally not more than half that length, its use being either to dig up edible roots, or to make holes in search of water. Stones, it may be mentioned, are not unfrequently found on which the engraving had only been partially made, and where there has been an attempt to obliterate the design by the application of emery and another stone. In some cases the objects are indicated only by lines of shading, while in others they are chiselled entirely out of the rock. These last are the most striking of all, and I believe that the eighteen specimens that I brought home with me from Wessel’s farm are unique in Europe. Amongst the subjects are the bust of a bushman, a woman carrying a load, an ostrich with a rider on its back, an ostrich meeting a rhinoceros, a jackal chasing a gazelle, but many of them are single figures of cows, gnus, and antelopes.
In the course of my sojourn at the farm I collected a large number of insects, birds, bird-skins, and plants, and before leaving my hospitable quarters I was invited by the neighbours to join them in some hunting-excursions. I went out twice, and on each occasion we were accompanied by a party of horsemen, a number of natives on foot, and by a pack of dogs. The object of the chase was to hunt hyænas and animals that live in holes in the earth, but, for myself, I was desirous of obtaining some live porcupines, jumping-hares, and earth-pigs. The first expedition was made by day. Those of us who were on horseback surrounded a rocky crag, and sent the natives with the dogs to beat up the hill; our success, however, was most indifferent, as we discovered that the hyænas had been alarmed in time to make their escape.
The second excursion was by night over a district composed of grass plains studded with bushes and ant-hills, and bordered, especially on the east, by wooded crags. It was as beautiful a night as I ever remember, the moonlight being perfectly unclouded. I had been out inspecting the carvings for a long time that day, and contemplated taking a still longer ride on the morrow. I therefore left my own horse at home, and was mounted on one that my kind host had lent me, and that was well accustomed to the locality. The dogs, of which every farmer had contributed several to make up the pack, were put upon the scent, and we had hardly been galloping more than five minutes before we heard them baying at the foot of a hill a little distance to our right. We spurred on our steeds, but gave them their heads, as they could see better than we could the blocks of stone that lay on the ground among the bushwood. We soon came up to the struggling mass in the midst of which was an object that kept glittering as it rolled over and over in the moonlight. It proved to be a porcupine which the dogs were rending to pieces; in spite of the armament of quills with which nature has endowed it, the porcupine has a remarkably fragile skin, so that it is easily torn by any animal that once makes good its hold upon it, and thus, although we dismounted without loss of time and beat off the hounds, we were too late to prevent the prey being lacerated, and it was in a very mangled condition that it fell to the lot of the fleet-footed Basutos.
Page 440.
CAPTURE OF AN EARTH-PIG.
Two more porcupines, a jumping-hare, and a South African skunk, all had a similar fate, and then the dogs took a circuitous route back again to the hills, and started an earth-pig (Orycteropus capensis). To escape its pursuers, the creature made an effort to burrow in the earth, and had partially succeeded, when we came up to it. Our men did their very best to secure it, but it rolled them over and over like so many balls, and got clean away.
The earth-pig is undeniably the strongest of all the edentata. Its body is long and round, and it has long powerful nails at the end of its claws, of which the sinews are remarkable for their strength; its fleshy wedge-shaped tail acts as a great support to its body, and though it sometimes uses it as a means of defence, it seems to be of most service when the creature is bounding away in flight. The tail likewise comes into requisition when, squatting on its hind quarters, it digs away at an ant-hill, for it is known to be one of the largest ant-eaters in South Africa. Its skin is tough and bristly, defying the fangs of the jackal, and it has a pair of long ears that are keenly alive to sound. The skin is used in the colony for making certain parts of harness. Other enemies to ants are the short-tailed pangolins, the hyæna-wolf, the mangusta, and the plover.
After our last failure we gave up our chase, and rode slowly home; but my friends were unwilling that I should be disappointed in my wish to carry away with me some of their live birds and animals, and subsequently assisted me in procuring a nice collection, amongst them some weaver-birds, which, however, did not live long.
During one of my rambles about the farm, I caught sight of a cobra, five feet long, in a weaver-bird’s nest. I was fortunate in killing it at my first shot, and found that it had destroyed several old birds and devoured a number of eggs.