240 Specimens of Hottentot Poetry. [ Marcu; 
On reading farther, we found, . however, that “ print or press”, meant 
merelythe traces of desolation left by a suffering crowd. We shall select 
one or two of those melodies, as specimens of the literature of this inte- 
resting people ; and our first shall be the description of a hunt, some- 
what different from the absurd sport of our fox-and-hare-hunting 
gentry :— 
THE Butt HUNT. 
His lordship the bull is asleep by the lake, 
He'll astonish the hunters as soon as he'll wake ; 
Now calm as the storm-cloud that rests on the hill, 
His roaring to-morrow the ether shall fill: 
Bullaboo, bullaboo ! 
When they come in his view, 
By my conscience, the hunters will look very blue! 
There’s Quashee and’ Smashee have found out his lair, 
Our kraal never witnessed so gallant a pair ; 
With their dogs, that are smart as the dogs of excise, 
His worship the smuggler they soon will capsize: 
Bullaboo, bullaboo ! 
Their rifles are true ; 
Betimes in the morning you'll meet with your due. 
The dogs in the morning burst into the brake, 
In the blood of his worship their fury to slake ; 
They barked, and he roared ; they bit, and he kicked ; 
And his fiercest assailants he craftily nicked: 
Bullaboo, bullaboo! 
When at you he flew, 
Sky-high from his forehead the bull-dogs he threw. 
The bull from the thicket then solemnly walked, 
But earth shook beneath him as onward he stalked ; 
And Smashee exclaimed, with a terrible call, 
“You must dance, Mr. Bull, when I open the ball :” 
Bullaboo, bullaboo! 
Your lordship he slew, 
And that night all the village were feasting on you. 
Ope XV. 1 28. 
Our last specimen shall be from one of their amatory poems. The 
reign of love is, it appears, not as limited as the domination of other 
sovereigns, but equally pervades the civilized and uncivilized classes of 
society :— 
I have got for my love a baboon, 
And the fat of a newly-killed sheep ; 
A ram’s-horn made into a spoon, 
A bull’s-hide on which she can sleep : 
And if a young lizard I find, 
Of the booty you shall have a part ; 
So now to your lover be kind, 
And give him a piece of your heart. 
We close the volume with sentiments of respect for the learned trans- 
lator ; for we have seldom enjoyed a greater treat than from the perusal 
of his unpretending little volume. We sincerely hope that his future 
labours may meet with public approbation, and that his forthcoming 
specimens of the Ashantee and Caffrarian poetry may remunerate the 
toil of translating from languages, whose beauties have been hitherto 
so little appreciated. 
