CHAPTER FORTY SIX.
TOTTY AND THE CHACMAS.
Von Bloom and his family had now been months without bread.

They were not without a substitute, however, as various roots and nuts supplied them with a change of food.

Of the latter, they had the ground or pig-nut (_Arachis hypogea_), which grows in all parts of Southern Africa, and which forms a staple food of the native inhabitants.

For vegetables they had the bulbs of many species of _Ixias_ and _Mesembryanthemums_, among others the "Hottentot fig" (_Mesembryanthemum edule_).

They had the "Caffir bread"-- the inside pith of the stems of a species of _Zamia_; and the "Caffir chestnut," the fruit of the _Brabeium stellatum_; and last, not least, the enormous roots of the "elephant's foot" (_Testudinaria elephantipes_).