214 SOUTHERN AFRICA. 



the voice, send out a herd to graze, or recall it at pleasure 

 to the enclosures. A cow is never killed but on high occa- 

 sions, milk, with roots, forming their standard diet. Skill 

 is shown in several arts, such as making baskets of grass, 

 sharpening iron by stones, without being able to smelt it, 

 and dressing calf-skins for their apparel. Polygamy is 

 lawful ; but as a wife costs an ox, or two cows, the practice 

 is confined to the rich. 



After returning to Graaf-Reynet, Mr. Barrow passed across 

 the Great Karroo, or desert, covered with scanty and useless 

 vegetation, yet presenting spring-boks, ostriches, and other 

 "wild animals, which roam in large herds, and the most 

 beautiful flowers, which spring up amid the sand. He then 

 came to the borders of the Sneuwberg, or Snowy Moun- 

 tains, the streams from which cover an extensive district 

 with luxuriant herbage. The colonists there are kept in a 

 state of greater activity than elsewhere, by the dread of 

 wild beasts, and of the still wilder race of Bosjesman Hot- 

 tentots, whose kraals occupy the intermediate valle3's. 

 They pursue and hunt down these unhappy creatures, as 

 if they were the natural enemies of the human race. Mr. 

 Barrow mentions a young fellow who had made a journey 

 along part of that mountain-range ; and on his return, being 

 asked if he had seen many Bosjesmans, replied, with a 

 disappointed air, that he had only shot four. These savages, 

 in their turn, carry off all the cattle they can find, and put 

 to a cruel death every one who falls into their hands, whe- 

 ther he be Dutch or Hottentot. Each party throws upon 

 the other the blame of this mutual hostiUty. Mr. Barrow 

 took some pains to acquire information respecting that un- 

 fortunate race. His party having succeeded in surprising a 

 kraal, the natives sprung out of their little mat-huts with 

 cries resembling the war-whoop of savages, and flew to the 

 top of a neighbouring hill. From inveterate habit it was 

 impossible to prevent some bloodshed ; but .it length, by 

 persevering kindness, several were induced to come for- 

 ward and hold communication with the English. They 

 proved to be the ugliest of human beings. Their hollow 

 backs, projecting bellies, and prominent posteriors, caused 

 the body to assume nearly the form of the letter S, which, 

 though by some painters described as constituting the line 

 of beauty, produces, in its application to the human shape, 



