| In this section:
Types of Hunting
The Bushmen are excellent
hunters. Although
Bushmen do a fair amount of trapping, the most esteemed
method of hunting is with bow and arrow. See How
bow & arrows are made?.
The Bushman's arrow does
not kill the animal straight away. It is the deadly
poison which eventually causes the death. In the case
of small buck such as duiker or steenbok a couple of
hours may elapse before death. For larger antelopes
this could be seven to twelve hours. For large game,
such as giraffe it could take as long as three days.
Today the Bushmen make the poison from the larvae of
a small beetle but will also use poison from plants,
especially the euphorbia, and snake venom.
A caterpillar, reddish yellow
in colour and about three-quarters of an inch long,
called ka or ngwa was also used. It is common in the
Kalahari and buries itself into a cocoon, from which
emerges a beetle. The poison was repeatedly boiled until
it looked like a red currant jelly. It was then allowed
to cool and was ready to be smeared on the arrows.
The poison is very dangerous
and is greatly feared by the Bushmen themselves; the
bone points are therefore reversed so that the poison
is safely contained within the reed collar. It is also
never smeared on the point but just below it - this
prevents fatal accidents.
The poison is cardiotoxic and does not contaminate the
whole animal. The spot where the arrow struck is cut
out and thrown away, but the rest of the meat is fit
to eat.
The effect of the poison isn't instant and the hunters
have to track the animal, perhaps for a few days. See
Tracking
The Bushmen also dug pitfalls
near the larger rivers where the game came to drink.
The pitfalls were large and deep, narrowing like a funnel
towards the bottom, in the centre of which was planted
a sharp-pointed stake. These pitfalls were covered with
branches which resulted in the animals walking over
the pit and falling onto the stake.
For catching small animals
such as hares, guinea fowls, steinbok or duiker, snares
made of twisted gut or fibre from plants were used.
These had a running noose that strangled the animal
when it stepped into the snare to collect the food that
had been placed inside it.
Another way of capturing
animals was to wait at ant-bear holes. These holes are
used by small buck as a resting place during the mid-day
sun. The hunter will wait patiently behind the hole
until the animal exits. When this happens it will be
firmly pinned and hit on the head with a kerrie.
The Bushmen are great stalkers
and know about the habits of the game. Having found
where a herd has gathered, they immediately test the
direction and force of the wind by throwing a handful
of dust into the air. If the ground is bare and open,
he will crawl on his belly, sometimes holding a small
bush in front of him.
The only animal that the
Bushmen possess is the dog. They assist in the capture
of animals such as hyena, duiker, warthogs and hares.
Hunters carry a skin bag
slung around one shoulder, containing personal belongings,
poison, medicine, fly whisks and additional arrows.
They may also carry a club to throw at, stun and dispatch
small game; a long probing stick to extract hares from
their burrows or a stick to dig out ant-bears or warthogs.
|
