aith in medicines as charms is
unbounded. The general effect of argument is to produce the impression
that you are not anxious for rain at all; and it is very undesirable
to allow the idea to spread that you do not take a generous interest
in their welfare. An angry opponent of rain-making in a tribe would be
looked upon as were some Greek merchants in England during the Russian
war.

The conduct of the people during this long-continued drought was
remarkably good. The women parted with most of their ornaments to
purchase corn from more fortunate tribes. The children scoured the
country in search of the numerous bulbs and roots which can sustain
life, and the men engaged in hunting. Very great numbers of the large
game, buffaloes, zebras, giraffes, tsessebes, kamas or hartebeests,
kokongs or gnus, pallahs, rhinoceroses, etc., congregated at some
fountains near Kolobeng, and the trap called "hopo" was constructed,
in the lands adjacent, for their destruction. The hopo consists of two
hedges in the form of the letter V, which are very high and thick near
the angle. Instead of the hedges being joined there, they are made to
form a lane of about fifty yards in length, at the extremity of which
a pit is formed, six or eight feet deep, and about twelve or fifteen in
breadth and length. Trunks of trees are laid across the margins of the
pit, and more especially over that nearest the lane where the animals
are expected to leap in, and over that farthest from the lane where it
is supposed they will attempt to escape after they are in. The trees
form an overlapping border, and render escape almost impossible. The
whole is carefully decked with short green rushes, making the pit like
a concealed pitfall. As the hedges are frequently about a mile long, and
about as much apart at their extremities, a tribe making a circle three
or four miles round the country adjacent to the opening, and gradually
closing up, are almost sure to inclose a large body of game. Driving it
up with shouts to the narrow part of the hopo, men secreted there throw
their javelins into the affrighted herds, and on the animals rush to the
opening presented at the converging hedges, and into the pit, till that
is full of a living mass. Some escape by running over the others, as
a Smithfield market-dog does over the sheep's backs. It is a frightful
scene. The men, wild with excitement, spear the lovely animals with mad
delight; others of the poor creatures, borne