A BUSH BELLE. 13 



jolting motion, with a degree of patience and unconcern, which plainly showed 

 it to have been used to it from the day of its birth. . . . We plentifully 

 feasted these poor creatures, and, I believe, made them happier than they 

 had been for a long while. Through an interpreter, they asked me my 

 name, and expressed, in artless terms, how much pleasure I had given them 

 by so bountiful a present of tobacco." 



Burchell having shot a hippopotamus had an opportunity of giving a 

 party of Bushmen an unwonted feast. The flesh was hastily cooked and 

 eaten half raw, in astounding quantities. He gives the following graphic 

 sketch of a Bush belle : — 



" Among these happy, dirty creatures, was one who, by her airs and dress, 

 showed that she had no mean opinion of her personal accomplishments : she 

 was, in fact, the prettiest young Bush-girl I had yet seen ; but her vanity, 

 and too evident consciousness of her superiority, rendered her less pleasing 

 in my eyes, and her extravagance in dress made her perhaps a less desirable 

 wife in the eyes of her countrymen ; for the immoderate quantity of grease, 

 red ochre, &c, with which her hair was clotted, would ruin any but a very 

 rich husband : herself, and every part of her dress, were so well greased, that 

 she must have been in her nation, a girl of good family ; and the number of 

 leather rings with which her arms and legs were adorned, proclaimed her to 

 be evidently a person of property ; round her ankles she carried about a 

 dozen thick rings of this kind, which, added to a pair of sandals, gave her the 

 appearance of wearing buskins. 



" But the most remarkable piece of affectation with which she adorned 

 herself, was, three small bits of ivory, of the size and shape of sparrows' eggs, 

 loosely pendant from her hair ; one in front as low as the point of her nose, 

 and one on the outer side of each cheek, all hanging at the same length. 

 These dangled from side to side as she moved her head, and, doubtless, made 

 full amends for their inconvenience, by the piquancy they were thought to 

 add to the wearer's beauty. The upper part of her head was crowned with a 

 small leather cap, fitted closely, but quite unornamented, and I should have 

 had a pleasure in gratifying her with a present of a string of beads, to render this 

 part of her dress more smart, if I had not been fearful that by doing this, I should 

 excite in her countrymen an inclination to beg and importune for what I 

 meant to reserve only for the natives further in the interior. Her vanity and 

 affectation, great as it was, did not as one may observe sometimes in both 

 sexes, in other countries, seem to choke her, or produce any alteration in the 

 tone of her voice, for the astonishing quantity of meat which she swallowed, 

 and the readiness with which she called out to her attendants for more, plainly 

 showed her to be resolved that no squeamishness should interfere with her 

 enjoyment on this occasion. . . 



"In five or six years after their arrrival at womanhood, the fresh plump- 



