gnant, diabolical expression in any animal's
countenance as there was upon that buffalo's. A lion is, I should say, a
gentleman and a man of honor compared to such an evil-disposed ruffian."

"Well, Major, you have only to let them alone; recollect, you were the
aggressor," said Swinton, laughing.

"Very true; I never wish to see one again."

"And I never wish to be in the way of a hippopotamus again, I can assure
you," said Alexander, "for a greater want of politeness I never met
with."

During this conversation the Hottentots and Bushmen at the other fires
had not been idle. The Hottentots had fried and eaten, and fried and
eaten, till they could hold no more; and the Bushmen, who in the morning
looked as thin and meager as if they had not had a meal for a month,
were now so stuffed that they could hardly walk, and their lean
stomachs were distended as round as balls. The Bushman who had been
tossed by the buffalo came up and asked for a little tobacco, at the
same time smiling and patting his stomach, which was distended to a most
extraordinary size.

"Yes, let us give them some," said Alexander; "it will complete their
day's happiness. Did you ever see a fellow so stuffed? I wonder he does
not burst."

"It is their custom. They starve for days, and then gorge in this way
when an opportunity offers, which is but seldom. Their calendar, such as
it is, is mainly from recollections of feasting; and I will answer for
it, that if one Bushman were on some future day to ask another when such
a thing took place, he would reply, just before or just after the white
men killed the buffaloes."

"How do they live in general?"

"They live upon roots at certain seasons of the year; upon locusts when
a flight takes place; upon lizards, beetles--any thing. Occasionally
they procure game, but not very often. They are obliged to lie in wait
for it, and wound it with their poisoned arrows, and then they follow
its track and look for it the next day. Subtle as the poison is they
only cut out the part near the wound, and eat the rest of the animal.
They dig pit-holes for the hippopotamus and rhinoceros and occasionally
take them. They poison the pools for the game also; but their living is
very precarious, and they often suffer the extremities of hunger."

"Is that the cause, do you imagine, of their being so diminutive a race,
Swinton?"

"No doubt of it. Continual privation and hardships from generation to
generation have, I