440 CAPE OF GOOD HOPE CHAP, xix 



them from the thorns with which the country everywhere 

 abounds. Under their feet some wore a kind of sandal of 

 wood or bark, but the greater number went entirely unshod. 

 For bodily qualifications they were strong, and appeared 

 nimble and active in a high degree. 



Their language, which appears to a European but in- 

 distinctly articulated, has this remarkable singularity, that in 

 pronouncing a sentence they click or cluck with their 

 tongues at very frequent intervals, so much so that these 

 clicks do not seem to have any particular meaning, except 

 possibly to divide words, or certain combinations of words. 

 How this can be effected, unless they can click with their 

 tongues without inspiring their breath, appears mysterious 

 to a European : and yet I am told that many of the Dutch 

 farmers understand and speak their language very fluently. 

 Almost all the natives, however, speak Dutch, which they do 

 without clicking their tongues, or any peculiarity whatever. 



In general they have more false shame (mauvaise honte) 

 than any people I have seen, which I have often had occasion 

 to experience when I have with the greatest difficulty per- 

 suaded them to dance or even to speak to each other in 

 their own language in my presence. Their songs and dances 

 are in extremes ; some tolerably active, consisting of quick 

 music and brisk motions, generally of distortions of the 

 body with unnatural leaps, crossing the legs backwards 

 and forwards, etc. ; others again as dull and spiritless 

 as can be imagined. One dance consists entirely of beating 

 the earth first with one foot and then with the other, with- 

 out moving their place at all, to the cadence of a tune 

 furnished with little more variety than the dance. 



Smoking is a custom most generally used among them, 

 in doing which they do not, as the Europeans do, admit the 

 smoke no farther than their mouths, but like the Chinese 

 suck it into their lungs, where they keep it for nearly a 

 minute before they emit it. They commonly mix with 

 their tobacco the leaves of hemp, which they cultivate for 

 that purpose, or Phlomis leonurus, which they call dacha. 

 Their food is the same as that of the farmers, chiefly bread 



