OCR Rendition - approximate

256   Art of Travel.

from it, to ascertain if it be much frequented. This is the manner in which spoor should at all times be sought for." (Cumming's `Life in South Africa.') To know if a burrow be tenanted, go to work on the same principle ; but, if the ground be hard, sprinkle sand over it, in order to show the tracks more clearly. It is related in the Apocrypha, that the prophet Daniel did this, when he wished to learn who it really was who every night consumed the meat which was placed before the idol of Bel, and which the idol itself was supposed to eat : he thus discovered that the priests and their families had a secret door by which they entered the temple ; and convinced the king of the matter, by showing him their footprints.

Carrying Game.-To carry small Game, as Fallow Deer.

Make a long slit with your knife between the back sinew and the bone of both of the hind-legs. Cut a thick pole of wood and a stout wooden skewer 8 inches long. Now thrust the right fore-leg through the slit in the left hind one, and then the left fore-leg through the slit in the right hind one, and holding these firmly in their places, push the skewer right through the left fore-leg, so as to peg it from drawing back. Lastly run the pole between the animal's legs and its body, and let two men carry it on their shoulders, one at each end of the pole ; or, if a beast of burden be at hand, the carcase is in a very convenient shape for being packed. In animals whose back sinew is not very prominent, it is best to cross the legs as above, and to lash them together. Always take the bowels out of game, before carrying it; it is so much weight saved. " I rode out accompanied by an after-rider, and shot two springboks, which we bore to camp secured on our horses behind our saddles, by passing the buckles of the girths on each side through the fore and hind legs of the antelopes, having first performed an incision between the bone and the sinews with the couteau de chasse, according to colonial usage." (Cumming's `Life in South Africa.') " After he had skinned and gutted the animal, he cut away the flesh from the bones, in one piece, without separating the limbs, so as to leave suspended from the tree merely the skeleton of the deer. This, it appeared, was the Turkish fashion in use upon long

?-F.1711 w ww.fastio.com