[698.] CATTLE TIJADE. 



9O' 



Men do not intermix with Women abroad ; each Sex has 

 its Affairs apart, and go in different Companies. They 

 neither knew what Gold or Silver was, or had any notion of 

 Money till the arrival of the Hollanders at the Cape. Their 

 Humanity towards one another, yields in nothing to that of 

 the Chincses. They mutually assist each other in their 

 Necessities, to that degree that they may properly be said to 

 have nothing of their own^ : Their Address in darting their 

 Zagaye is singular. This is a sort of Half-pike, arm'd at the 

 end with somewhat that is hard and pointed. They are so 

 exact when they throw this Pike, that they will do it within 

 the compass of a Crown. 'Tis with this they dai-t Fish, so 

 that they never want any Edible of that kind. 



The Company has so considerable a Trade witli them, that 

 they have almost all their Cattle from them. They bring 

 great numbers of Oxen and Sheep to the Cajye, and the 

 Company gives for each, as much roU'd Tobacco of the big- 

 ness of one's Thumb, as will reacli from the Beasts Forehead, 

 to the root of his Tail, or else they have for each Beast a 

 certain measure of Aqua-vitiV, such as they agree upon. 

 This Commerce is rigorously forbid to the new Inhabitants, 



personnes que je ue pouvois soup^onuer de u'etre point instruites, 

 m'out assure la faussete clu tablier que I'on prete aux femmes 

 Hottentotes." (Voyages antonvdu Jlfonde, ii, p. 25.) 



M. Sonnerat, who landed at Cape Town subsequently (1774-81) 

 also agrees with M. de Pages in this respect : — " Le tablier fabuleux 

 qu'on prete a leurs femmes, et qu'on dit leur avoir ete donne par la 

 nature, n'a point de realite ; il est vrai, qu'on aper^oit dans certaines 

 une excroissance des nymphes qui quelquefois pend de six pouces, 

 niais c'est un phenomene particulier, dont on ne peut pas faire une 

 rfegle geuerale." (Voyage uux Inden, vol. iii, p. 319.) In a subse- 

 quent note, MM. Peron and Lesueur are quoted as observing in a 

 memoir read at the Institute of France that the tahlkr is found 

 throughout the African tribes to the north of the great Karoo and 

 the mountains of Snewberg ; and controverting the opinions of 

 Levaillant and Barrow on the subject. 



1 In orig. : '' Et effectivement, la lumiere naturelle devroit porter 

 les homines a en user ainsi," omitted by translator. 



