Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/515

 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 horse-men, a number of natives on foot, and by a pack of dogs. The object of the chuse was to hunt hyænas and animals that live in holes in the earth, but, for