s, crouching around fires which they
lit in the open, clad in rags, and exhibiting countenances from which
every trace of self-respect had disappeared. These were the ancestors of
the present men of the bushes.

They took naturally to the neglected fields, and forming "camps" as they
call their tribes, or rather families, wandered to and fro, easily
subsisting upon roots and trapped game. So they live to this day, having
become extremely dexterous in snaring every species of bird and animal,
and the fishes of the streams. These latter they sometimes poison with a
drug or a plant (it is not known which), the knowledge of which has been
preserved among them since the days of the ancients. The poison kills
the fishes, and brings them to the surface, when they can be collected
by hundreds, but does not injure them for eating.

Like the black wood-dogs, the Bushmen often in fits of savage frenzy
destroy thrice as much as they can devour, trapping deer in wickerwork
hedges, or pitfalls, and cutting the miserable animals in pieces, for
mere thirst of blood. The oxen and cattle in the enclosures are
occasionally in the same manner fearfully mutilated by these wretches,
sometimes for amusement, and sometimes in vengeance for injuries done to
them. Bushmen have no settled home, cultivate no kind of corn or
vegetable, keep no animals, not even dogs, have no houses or huts, no
boats or canoes, nothing that requires the least intelligence or energy
to construct.

Roaming to and fro without any apparent aim or object, or any particular
route, they fix their camp for a few days wherever it suits their fancy,
and again move on, no man knows why or whither. It is this uncertainty
of movement which makes them so dangerous. To-day there may not be the
least sign of any within miles of an enclosure. In the night a "camp"
may pass, slaughtering such cattle as may have remained without the
palisade, or killing the unfortunate shepherd who has not got within the
walls, and in the morning they may be nowhere to be seen, having
disappeared like vermin. Face to face the Bushman is never to be feared;
a whole "camp" or tribal family will scatter if a traveler stumbles into
their midst. It is from behind a tree or under cover of night that he
deals his murderous blow.

A "camp" may consist of ten or twenty individuals, sometimes, perhaps,
of forty, or even fifty, of various ages, and is ruled by the eldest,
who is also the parent. He is absolu