File:The Pit at the Extremity of the Hopo.jpg

English: The Pit at the Extremity of the Hopo.
"The hopo consists of two hedges in the form of the letter V, which are very high and thick near the angle. Instead of the hedges being joined there, they are made to form a lane of about fifty yards in length, at the extremity of which a pit is formed, six or eight feet deep, and about twelve or fifteen in breadth and length. Trunks of trees are laid across the margins of the pit . . . and render escape almost impossible. The whole is carefully decked with short green rushes, making the pit like a concealed pitfall. As the hedges are frequently about a mile long . . . a tribe making a circle three or four miles round the country adjacent to the opening, and gradually closing up, are almost sure to enclose a large body of game. . . . The Bakwains often killed between sixty and seventy head of large game at the different hopos in a single week, and as every one, both rich and poor, partook of the prey, the meat counteracted the bad effects of an exclusively vegetable diet." [p. 26]