320 



HOTTENTOTS. 



Hottentots been formed into any kind of communities, than the 



" "V""'' remains of a tribe or nation who had once possessed 

 any laws or customs common to them all. The truest 

 specimens of the unmixed Hottentot people and prac- 

 tices are probably to be found among the Bosjesiuans, 

 (see BOSJESMANS) ; but, whether that wretched race 

 existed in their present condition before the dispersion 

 of the Hottentots, or in consequence of that event, must 

 remain a subject of mere conjecture. A few detached 

 customs and practices of the Hottentots may be briefly 



Customs, stated. One of the customs still generally prevalent, 

 is to shave the heads of young girls as soon as the first 

 symptoms of maturity appear, to remove all their or- 

 naments, and wash the whole body thoroughly ; and to 

 restrict them to a milk diet, and seclude them from the 

 company of men during the continuance of the periodi- 

 cal symptoms. Though they inter their dead without 

 any ceremony, it is a common practice to pile a heap 

 of stones over the grave ; and it is firmly believed 

 among them, that some misfortune would soon befal 

 the individual who should pass the place without add- 

 ing a stone to the heap. This custom is supposed to 

 have originated in a wish to secure the bodies of the 

 deceased from being dug up and devoured by wild 

 beasts. The Hottentots in drinking from a pool or 

 stream, throw the water into their mouths with their 

 right hand in a very expert and expeditious manner, 

 seldom bringing the hand nearer the mouth than the 

 distance of a foot. They generally wash their poison- 

 ed wounds with a mixture of urine and gun-powder, 

 besides frequently using the actual cautery; and, for 

 the most part, recover easily unless wounded severely. 

 They kill their cattle, by thrusting a sharp-pointed in- 

 strument into the spinal marrow immediately behind 

 the horns ; and the animal being thus instantaneously 

 deprived of life, the throat is cut to let out the blood. 

 Among the Hottentots who reside at the mouth of the 

 Orange river, a superstitious practice prevails, similar 

 to what has been observed among the South Sea 

 islanders, of cutting off the first joint of their little 

 finger, as a remedy for a particular disease to which 

 they are subject when young. 



Character. The most prominent point in the habits and disposi- 

 tions of the Hottentots is their extreme indolence, which 

 even the urgent calls of hunger are scarcely able to 

 overcome. Provided they are allowed to sleep, they 

 would willingly fast the whole day, rather than under- 

 go the trouble of digging the ground for roots, or pro- 

 curing food by the chace ; and Mr Barrow particularly 

 relates, that in the course of his journies, the Hotten- 

 tot servants frequently passed the day without a morsel 

 of food, rather than walk half a mile for a sheep. They 

 are habituated from their infancy to a life of sloth ; 

 and, having obtained what is barely sufficient to sup- 

 port nature, contentedly spend the day as well as night 

 in sleeping under a bush upon their sheep-skin. Even 

 in the service of the Dutch colonists, they are rather 

 confirmed in their laziness, than cured of it ; as, in 

 every farm-house there is so great a multitude of ser- 

 vants, that little work falls to the share of each indivi- 

 dual. It is not uncommon to see twenty or thirty, 

 where there is not employment for more than four or 

 five ; so that one of the domestics, during the space of a 

 whole day, may have only to bring his master's whip 

 from the next apartment ; another to fetch his mis- 

 tress's fire-box and place it under her feet ; and a third 

 to supply some of the family, three or four times in 

 the day, with lighted wood" to kindle their tobacco 

 pipes. They are by no means, however, a stupid 



people. They are uncommonly expert in finding out Hottentots. 

 a passage over a desert uninhabited country. They s "Y"""'' 

 are remarkably quick-sighted, and can discover the 

 game in the chace at a very great distance. They will 

 follow will) the eye the flight even of a bee to an in- 

 credible distance, watching its motions, and tracing 

 out its nest. They are able to distinguish the prints 

 of the feet of whatever animal they chance to pursue, if 

 they be at all acquainted with it ; and would single out 

 among a thousand foot-marks those of their compa- 

 nions. They learn the Dutch language with great fa- 

 cility ; and though seldom employed as domestic ser- 

 vants by the colonists at the Cape, they can be taught 

 to do every kind of work with as much propriety as 

 Europeans. They are a mild, quiet, and rather timid 

 people; but endure pain with extraordinary patience, 

 and, when led on by superiors, will encounter danger 

 with sufficient alacrity. They are honest and faithful, 

 and have little of that cunning which savages general- 

 ly possess ; but are ready to divulge the truth, when 

 charged with crimes of which they have been guilty. 

 They seldom quarrel among themselves, or make use 

 of provoking language ; but are kind and affectionate 

 to one another, and ready to share the hist morsel with 

 their companions. Though extremely phlegmatic, they 

 are not incapable of strong attachments, and are parti- 

 cularly sensible to any act of kindness. These are sen- 

 sations, however, which they have, unhappily, few op- 

 portunities of indulging. In the state of hard bondage 

 and cruel oppression, under which they spend their 

 miserable existence, the muscles of their countenance 

 are rarely seen to relax into a smile, but are constantly 

 overspread with the deepest melancholy. It has been 

 sufficiently proved, that under humane treatment they 

 are capable of being rendered active, industrious, and 

 useful members of society. About 500 of them had Hottentot 

 been embodied by the Dutch in a corps called the Cape regiment. 

 Regiment ; and, though unsupported, had acted with 

 considerable spirit in opposing the British troops at the 

 capture of the colony in 1795. General Sir James Craig 

 found it expedient to take them into the British service, 

 and to increase their numbers. They became excellent 

 soldiers, orderly, tractable, and faithful, ready on all oc- 

 casions to obey the commands of their officers with 

 cheerfulness and alacrity. " Never," says the above- 

 mentioned officer, " were people more contented, or 

 more grateful for the treatment they now receive. It 

 is with the opportunity of knowing them well, that I 

 venture to pronounce them an intelligent race of men. 

 All who bear arms exercise well, and understand im- 

 mediately and perfectly whatever they are taught to 

 perform. Many of them speak English tolerably well. 

 We were told, that so great was their propensity to 

 drunkenness, we should never be able to reduce them 

 to order or discipline ; and that the habit of roving was 

 so rooted in their disposition, we must expect the whole 

 corps would desei't the moment they had received their 

 clothing. With respect to the first, I do not find they 

 are more given to the vice of drinking than our own peo- 

 ple ; and, as to their pretended propensity to roving, 

 that charge is fully confuted by the circumstance of only 

 one man having left us since I first adopted the mea- 

 sure of assembling them, and he was urged to this step 

 from having accidentally lost his firelock." " Of all 

 the qualities, it will little be expected I should expatiate 

 upon their cleanliness ; and yet it is certain, that at this 

 moment our Hottentot parade would not suffer in a 

 comparison with that of some of our regular regiments. 

 Their clothing may perhaps have suffered more than it 





