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tion, he learns a variety of tricks highly diverting to these 

 people, who cannot boast of much refinement of taste. 

 The Cape baboon is a variety of the Simla Hamadryas. 

 They may be seen in large flocks, skipping along the 

 mountain-cliffs, and attain to great size and strength. It is 

 not altogether safe to get among such a flock ; and I have 

 been more than once not a little alarmed on finding myself 

 unexpectedly in the midst of two or three dozen of them, 

 prowling about for roots and berries. Another favourite 

 among the boors is the Green Monkey, {Simla Sahcea,) 

 which abounds in the forests, and is one of the most 

 beautiful and gentle of the tribe; but, like the rest of its 

 congeners, full of curiosity and mischief 



" I remarked one instance of delicacy in the domestic 

 economy of the boors, which I should never have dreamed 

 of at the further extremity of Africa. They never kill any 

 of their poultry till after they have been cooped up for a 

 month or six weeks, and fed on grain ; nor do they eat any 

 of their eggs, except such as are laid during their confine- 

 ment. I was at a loss to account for this piece of affecta- 

 tion, as I thought it, but was satisfied of its propriety from 

 a single hint — that the domestic Hottentots in these families 

 are all fed, for the most part, on maize or wheat, boiled in 

 the grain. 



" The farmers in the remote parts of the Colony are but 

 sparingly provided with household furniture. Deprived of 

 the ox-hide and the calabash, the boor would be as destitute 

 as the South Sea Islander without the cocoa tree. In his 

 hands, the calabash is a perfect Proteus; you see it in all 

 corners of the hut, in the form of plates, bowls, jugs, bottles, 

 and drinking cups. The ox-hide has more employments 

 than Scrub, in the play. It is a substitute for all sorts of 

 cordage ; it is made into drag-ropes for the waggon, head- 

 stalls for the oxen, bridles for the horses, cordage for 

 thatching the hut, slips for bottoming the beds, chairs and 

 stools, pickling-tubs for his beef, and feldt schoon for him- 

 self and family. 



" With all these drawbacks on his comfort, it must never- 



