KOLBEN. 209' 



riaughJtered animals. They assign as a reason for this sin" 

 gular practice an effect which has been readily admitted by 

 judicious travellers, namely, that such a coating has in this 

 climate a most salutary influence in defending them from 

 the rays of the sun, and in averting many cutaneous dis- 

 orders. Nature seems to have aided the task of disfiguring 

 them, by covering the head with irregular tufts of hard and 

 coarse hair, and causing singular prominences, composed 

 of fat, to jut out in parts where they are least ornamental. 

 Nor do their habits of life present any thing to redeem this 

 outward deformity. Their kraals consist of a confused 

 crowd of little conical hovels, composed of twigs and earth, 

 in which large families sit and sleep, without having room 

 to stand upright. The fire in the middle fills these man- 

 sions with thick smoke, the floors of which are deeply co- 

 vered with every species of filth. At festivals, when an ox 

 or a sheep is killed, the Hottentots rip open the belly, tear 

 out the entrails, which they throw on the coals, and feast on 

 them before the animal is completely dead. Yet they are a 

 friendly, merry, hospitable race, living together in the great- 

 est affection and harmony. The sluggish and senseless 

 stupidity with which they have been so generally taxed, 

 seems to have been in a great measure produced by their 

 degrading subjection to the Dutch boors. In their free 

 state they had a republican form of polity, and konquers or 

 captains of the kraal, who led them to war, which they car- 

 ried on with extreme fury. This commander usually sounded a 

 pipe or flageolet, during which his men fought without in- 

 termission ; but as soon as the music ceased they began to 

 retreat. The Hottentots direct their darts and throwing- 

 sticks with a sure aim, surround and attack wild animals 

 with skill and vigour, and evade their springs with a dexte- 

 rity which no European can equal. They tan, dress, and 

 shape skins ; make mats of flags and bulrushes ; also twist 

 strings for their bows out of the sinews of animals ; and 

 even mould iron into cutting instruments with considerable 

 expertness. In their free and happy state, they displayed 

 the same passion for the dance and song which is general 

 throughout Africa. A heavy reproach lies upon this race, 

 as being destitute of all ideas of religion ; and the atheist 

 has even boasted of them as an exception to that universal be- 

 lief of mankind, which is urged against his unnatural tenet. 



