Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 123
Women of the Nxaro tribe of San people in southern Botswana gather food from
the bush while scrubbing their teeth with twigs.
Stefan, a Botswanan guide of European descent who was with us, had
grown up with the San. The women badgered him for help because he was
tall enough to be an expert fl usher of jewel-beetles.
The local jewel beetles, of the family
Buprestidae
, are a vivid black and yel-
low. They live in the upper branches of thorn trees. The trick to catching
them is to persuade Stefan to throw a large stick at the top of the tree. As
the stick crashes into the branches the beetles fl y away in all directions and
everybody races after them to catch them in their hats.
Screams of laughter erupted as we scattered across the landscape. I had
little luck, but within minutes the women had collected large numbers of the
brilliant beetles. They crawled across their hands like animated sweets.
Other insects, such as clusters of tiny black grasshoppers that clung to
the tree branches like grapes, were eagerly scooped up as contributions to
the coming feast.
