*775- The tradl of country round about this place is confidered November. ^ A f arm' e r had lately chofen this fpot to cultivate and live in. For the prefent, a hut compofed of leaves and ftraw was all the houfe he had. Here I found and made a defcription of many trees and lhrubs, which I had not feen before. Here were likewife, in greater numbers than elfewhere, infedts of that peculiar genus firft defcrib- ed by Profeffor T h u n b e r g , by the name of pneumora, in the Swediih Tranfadtions, Vol. XXXVI. p. 2,54. This fpe- cies, to which likewife mult be referred the Gr. papillos. F a b r . is compofed of 1. pn. immac. (gryll. unicol. L i n n : ) 2. pn. macul. (gr. variolas. L i n n , and F a b r . ) 3. pn. fex gutt. (gr. inan. F a b r . ) They are from two to three inches long, and their abdomen, one fingle fmall gut excepted, is found empty, and at the fame time quite pellucid, and likewife blown up and diftended ; on which account they are called blaazops by the colonifts, and are faid to live on nothing but wind. In the day time they are moftly filent, but in the places haunted by them, one fometimes of an evening hears the noife of them from all iides, which is tremulous and tolerably loud. They are eafily allured by any ftrong light in the dark, and then are eafieft caught; but very rarely .appear at that time. A perfon allured me, -they might eafily be brought out of their-hiding places by a noife, or by talking to them, as it were* and going to meet them; but when he made the experiment in my prefence it failed. On the 3d we baited at the next farm, which was on the other fide of Diep-rivier. Several Hottentots of theBolhies- man race, who were in the farmer’s fervice, had their huts 8 near near the farm. Thefe huts were made of ftraw, but were iflSfc •, ■ - November. now, for the greater part, covered befides with large flips of elephant’s flelh, which was cut out zig-zag faihion in fixings or flips of the thicknefs of two, three, and four fingers breadth, and hung together to the length of fe- veral fathoms. Some of thefe were wound round the huts, while others were ftretched from one hut to the other for the fake o f drying them. At this time the men, women,; and children here had no other employment than that o f fleeping, fmoking, and eating elephant’s flelh. And though I had eaten dog’s flelh in the South-Sea, yet the looks and flavour o f the prefent entertainment, were fufficient to take from me all curiofity and defire of tailing that of the elephant. Befides, at this time it was not frelh, but had been dried for fome days in the fu n ; fo that had I tailed of it, my opinion could not by any means have been depended on; and I lhould have drawn upon myfelf the contempt of the colonifts into the bargain, who look upon it almoft as horrible an adlion to eat the flelh o f an elephant as that of a man; as the elephant, according to them, is a very intelligent animal, which, when it is wounded and finds that it cannot efcape from its enemies, in a manner weeps ; fo that the tears run down its cheeks, juft as with the human fpecies when in forrow and affliction. I was defirous o f riding out upon the plains where the elephants had been fhot, in order to fee the ikeletons of them; but I was allured, that all their bones had been already dragged off the premifes by the wolves.
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