Stimulants used by the Hottentots. 241 



this century by a Moravian brother of the name of Gottfried 

 Hensel ; the other a treatise composed by the excellent Dr. 

 Roser himself, upon the pharmaceutics and natural history of 

 Genaaden Dal. With respect to the various substances chewed 

 as stimulants, or intoxicants, by the Hottentots, in order to 

 deprive themselves of sensation, or rouse themselves to a state 

 of high excitability, we found the following particulars in this 

 interesting essay. That most in use is composed of the bruised 

 leaves of the " Leonotis Leonurus." This plant, which grows 

 in great quantity in and beyond the Genaaden Dal, is called by 

 the natives '' Dagga," as also frequently, " Tacha or Takka," 

 and this variation in pronunciation is very probably the reason 

 that we find in Berghaus's " Volker des Erdballs'' (Races of 

 the Globe), this celebrated smoke-weed, marked as '* Donha." 

 What the same author says of certain stimulating properties of 

 the plant may well be considered as an exaggeration. It is 

 curious how the properties of this plant seem to be inextricably 

 mingled with the destinies of the Hottentots. In many places 

 it has been extirpated, in order more readily to wean the abori- 

 gines from the practice of chewing : at other places again, 

 ** Leonotis Leoiiurus" is expressly planted in order to attract 

 the Hottentots, and so supply any deficiency in hands for 

 labour, reckless of the moral consequences. Another narcotic, 

 and the most widely prevalent, is the wild hemp (Canabis 

 Saliva), the dried leaves of which are smoked by the natives. 

 Dr. Juritz, one of the most respectable apothecaries in Cape 

 Town, assured us he had been compelled, during a previous 



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