HOTTENTOTS. 



317 



Mi - 



!-,'. .<- 

 ' in.'. 



age of twenty-five, this is a privilege which they are 

 generally too ignorant to claim, or too feeble to enforce. 

 At most, the poor wretches, after spending the prime 

 of their strength in an unprofitable servitude, are turned 

 adrift at last with no other earthly property except the 

 sheep skin upon their back. Those who are apparently 

 free, and engage themselves from y*ar to year, are not 

 much better protected and provided for. If they have 

 families when they enter the service, their children are 

 encouraged to run about the farm house, where they 

 receive their morsel of food; and upon this ground, 

 are often claimed a* the property of the farmer when 

 their parents are desirous to remove, or perhaps forci- 

 bly turned away. Those who are unmarried, as well 

 a* free, are doubtless the least wretched; but even 

 their personal service is easily converted into the hard, 

 est bondage. Their paltry wage* are stopped upon 

 every frivolous pretext ; and should any of the cattle 

 entrusted to their care be missing, they must prolong 

 their service without pay, till they have earned the va- 

 lue of what was lost. Or, should no damage of this 

 nature be imputable to their negligence during the 

 year, they may still have nothing to receive at the end 

 of it, in consequence of a bill for brandy or tobacco, 

 brought against them to the full amount of their wa- 

 ge*. In such circumstances, they have little induce- 

 ment to engage in marriage ; and when they do enter 

 into that state, they are frequently without any off' 

 spring, or at most have seldom more than two or three 

 children. Their extreme poverty, scanty food, and 



line powers of nature ; and their practice of marrying 



only among their own limited horde i* 

 additional hindrance to their increase. Multitude* of the 

 more independent tribe*, also, have perished by the 

 hostilities of the Caffres, and the ferocity of the wild 

 bsaets, a* they receded toward* the interior of the 

 country. From all these cssisse combined, the Hot- 

 tentot race is rapidly oSmsnrshing. and in all prebabi- 

 w ill soon become wholly extinct. Many of their 

 tribes mentioned by the earlier travellers, have entirely 



sent century, not a kraal or village was to be found 

 about Camtoos river, where, only 20 years before, 

 hundreds of the native* were met in groupe*. In the 

 whole extensive district of (Graaff Key net, there is not a 

 tingle horde of independent Hottentots; and the whole 

 number within the limit* of the colony dee* not amount 



to tiUtxTi thousand. M it rli h.n iwfti t lnvr *;nrr I lie 



colony came last into the possession of Great Britain, 



specially by the of Sir John Craddock. and 



the progress of missionary settlements, to protect and 

 preserve this uuptmsiJ race of beings ; but, though a 

 little remnant may thus be collected, the nation, it i* 

 to be feared, i almost already extinguished. A mixed 

 breed, called Bastaards, produced from Hottentot wo- 

 men and European father*, or the slaves from other 

 countries, are likely to supplant the original inhabi- 

 tant*. They are already a pomeroas race in the co- 

 lony ; and are a tall, stout, and active people. 



The ancient manner* and primitive character of the 

 Hottentot* are acknowledged to have been greatly 

 changed during their connection with the colonist* of 

 the Cape ; and it may not, therefore, be a safirient 

 proof of the inaccuracy of former account*, that they 

 do not correspond with the observations of recent tra- 



vellers. At the same time, so many of the strange and Hottentots, 

 ridiculous stories, published on the subject, have l>een ~~ "Y"~ 

 discovered to have originated in ignorance, credulity, 

 or deliberate fiction, that little dependence can be pla- 

 ced upon any of the narratives which preceded the en- 

 lightened enquiries and personal observations of Barrow, 

 Truter, Somerville, &c. The Hottentots of one dis- 

 trict, differ considerably, in the present day, from those 

 of another, in consequence of their living together in 

 particular clans, and mixing with different kinds of 

 people; but from observing their manners in these 

 parts of the colony, which have been most recently oc- 

 cupied, some approach may be made to a sketch of 

 their original native character. The personal appear- Personal 

 ance of the Hottentots, though by no means prepos- appearance, 

 seasing, is not nearly so revolting a has been often repre- 

 sented. Their countenance, indeed, is in general ex- 

 tremely ugly. Prominent cheek bones.andanarrow point- 

 ed chin, give to the face the form nearly of a triangle. 

 The nose, in most of them, is remarkably flat, and rather 

 broad between the eyes. The eyes are of a deep ches- 

 nut colour, long and narrow in their shape, and the 

 eye-lids, at the extremity next the nose, instead of 

 forming an ang'e as in Europeans, are rounded into 

 each other, exactly like those of the Chinese. Their 

 mouth is of the ordinary size, the lips thinner than 

 those of the Negroes and Caffres, and the teeth beauti- 

 fully white. The hair of their heads i* of a singular 

 nature, growing in small tufts at certain distance* from 

 each other, and extremely hard and friziled, resem- 

 bling, whan short, the t>mtle* of a shoe-brush twitted 

 into round lumps about the sue of a large pea, and, 

 when suffered to grow, hanging about the neck in 

 strong tassels like fringe. The colour of their skin i* 

 that of a yellowish brown or faded leaf. Their figure, 

 especially when young, i* not devoid of symmetry. 

 They are erect, deaii-limbcd. and well proportioned ; 

 their hands, feet, and all their joint*, remarkably small; 

 and the muscular parts of their body delicately formed, 

 so a* to indicate rather feminine inactivity, than mas- 

 culine exertion. Some of the women in their youth, :<nd 

 before child-bearing, are described as models of per tec. 

 lion in the human figure ; every joint and limb being 

 well shaped and turned ; their breast* round, firm, and 

 distant ; their hands and feet small and delicately form- 

 ed ; and their gait not altogether deficient in grace. 

 But, at an early period of lite, and immediately after 

 the birth of their first child, their beauty vanishes ; tin ir 

 unset i begin to grow loose and flaccid, and at length 

 become enormously distended ; their bellies protrude, 

 and their posterior* acquire immense masse* of fat, so 

 as to give to the spine an appearance of extraordinary 

 curvature inwards. It i* very rarely that a cri|>|<l>- <>r 

 defamed person is seen among the Hottentots of either 

 sex ; and they are not subject to any particular dis- 

 ease*. Their health is generally sound ; and their life, 

 if not cut short by accident or violence, ;s usually ter- 

 minated by a gradual decay. Hut they are not so long- 

 lived a* the natives of most other countries, which re- 

 semble tlieir own in point of temperature ; and it i* a 

 rare occurrence when any of them attains the age of 

 sixty year*. 



The dress of a Hottentot is very simple; ami in Drcn 

 summer is so trifling, as not to deserve the name of 

 covering. It consists of a belt cut from the hide of 

 animal, and fastened round their body. From 



I to Mr Cuipbdl that UK aad bom un tWMnn, a* bai sfl teea dsstroved by liont, tygen, and strpsM. 



