^54 A HAPPY FAMILY COMET SICKNESS. 



those inhabiting the Garieb (the Orange) River strengthens 

 the supposition. 



I had ordered Eyebrecht to meet me on the Nosop, and I 

 found him in company with a handsome Griqua girl, whom 

 he had married according to the fashion of the Namaquas. 

 The union bade fair to be a fruitful one, for the happy couple 

 were already blessed with an infant. The face of the tawny- 

 complexioned husband was beaming with paternal pride and 

 satisfaction. He was living with his father-in-law (Jan 

 Zaal), a great hunter, with whom I also took up my quarters 

 for a short time. The people were exceedingly kind to me, 

 and remarkably clean and neat in all their household ar- 

 rangements. Besides, I enjoyed an unlimited supply of sweet 

 and sour milk, both of which I greatly relished. 



During my stay on the Nosop I observed for several nights 

 a remarkable comet. On the last of April, about eight 

 o'clock in the evening, when about to set, the latitude being 

 23 o S., it bore 296° by compass. 



Having engaged my host's son, Klaas Zaal, to accompany 

 me as a wagon-driver as far as Tunobis, whence he and Eye- 

 brecht were to return, I was again on the move on the after- 

 noon of the 4th of May. For a day or two we followed the 

 right bank of the White Nosop, and then crossed over to the 

 other branch, where, in order to explore the road before us, 

 we rested a couple of days. 



Having proceeded one morning in search of game, I be- 

 came very hungry, and, observing an inviting bean-looking 

 fruit, I ate greedily of it, but it nearly cost me my life. I 

 was seized with giddiness, vomiting, and racking pains, and 

 arrived in a staggering and bewildered state at our camp, 

 completely exhausted, I then learned that the pulse I had 

 eaten was, in a raw state,. highly deleterious, but if cooked, 

 could not alone be eaten with impunity, but was really bene- 

 ticial. 



Almost from my first entrance into the country, thinking 



