SOUTHERN AFRICA. 35 



watered at the appearance of our wag-g-ons^ and who re- 

 quested particuhirly that we would not transact any business 

 with his people until the morrow. This man is remarkable 

 as being" one of the only two Griquas who escaped the g-ene- 

 ral massacre of their army by Moselekatse's warriors in 1831^ 

 the particulars of which we obtained from himself. From 

 him also we received five fresh oxen^ in lieu of our six lame 

 ones and a cast-off surtout coat of Eichardson's^ which he 

 immediately donned with g-reat exultation. 



At Kramers-fontein next da}^^ a horrible spectacle presented 

 itself to us in the form of an emaciated old Bushwoman, 

 who had come down from her kraal^ five miles distant, to 

 fill two ostrich eg-g'-shells with water. ^^ Grim misery had 

 worn her to the bones/' and it is no exag'g'eration to say that 

 her attenuated form appeared a skeleton covered with a wet 

 cloth. Those rounded proportions which are given to the 

 human form divine, had no existence in her. Her skin 

 resembled wrinkled leather, and I can compare her leg's and 

 arms to nothino- but straio-htened sticks, knobbed at the 

 joints. Her body was actually crawling- with vermin, with 

 which she was constantly feeding- a little half-inanimate 

 miniature of herself in arms. 



" Withered and wild in her attire, 



She looked not like a habitant of earth, 

 And jet was on it." 



We were g-lad to bribe her to depart by a present of tobacco, 

 and the wretched creature's countenance evinced thankful- 

 ness at our liberality. 



The pig'my race of which this woman was a characteristic 

 specimen, usually reside in holes and crannies of rocks, 

 and sometimes in wretched huts incapable of protecting* 

 them from the inclemency of the seasons. These, their 

 constant fear of discovery induces them to erect in secluded 

 spots at a g-reat distance from water : a precaution to which 



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