30 
the table, acquire a degree of obesity that renders them 
objects of disgust, The habit of using vegetable acids as ` 
seasoning to every article of food, soon destroys the teeth. 
So universal indeed is this defect, that a fine set of teeth never 
enters as an item into the catalogue of female beauty: and the 
total neglect of the brush renders such as they have offensive 
to the sight of any person of delicacy. 
- * Almost every private house in Capetown is open for the 
accommodation of such strangers as have occasion to take 
lodgings for any time in the town, This custom supersedes 
the use of taverns: but as it was originally the offspring of 
poverty and necessity, it will fall into disuse in proportion as 
the inhabitants become more opulent, ‘The town may, at 
present, be aptly compared to a large inn on a well-frequented 
road, The same incessant routine of arrivals and departures; 
the same chaotic medley of characters; and the same insa- — 
tiable thirst of gain, and disregard of reputation in the manner _ 
of acquiring it, are characteristic of both. 
s There is a constant succession of Venduties, or public 
sales, in Capetown. These sales are a species of lottery, in 
which every person, but especially the old women, engage 
as as precarious as in the Sid ti that. goes more properly by _ 
that name. Not a day passes without several auctions; and — 
it is by no means uncommon that an article purchased in the — 
morning at one, should be exposed in the course of the day 
for sale at another. The more considerable sales are adver- 
tised in the Cape Gazette, but the minor ones are announced - 1 
by a crier, who goes about the streets beating a brass plate 1 
to attract notice. All the idlers run to those places, where — 
they are sure to hear the politics and the scandal of the day — 
discussed : at the same time, the low price at which they see _ 
articles knocked down, tempts them to stake their money, as 
they would at hazard or lansquenet. If the purchases are — 
not of sufficient magnitude to authorize a sale at home, they _ 
send them to the first auction that takes place in their neigh- — 
bourhood, where they must run the risk of meeting with —— 
profit or loss, On this principle, every inhabitant of either 
