COUNTRY OF THE HOTTENTOTS. 197 



to their hovels by day, for fear of being surprised and taken by the 

 farmers, they sometimes dance on moon-light nights from the selling 

 to the rising ol the sun. This cheerfulness is the more extraordinary 

 as the morsel they procure to support existence is earned with dan- 

 ger and fatigue. The Bosjesmen neither cultivate the ground nor 

 breed cattle, and their country yields few natural productions that 

 serve for food. The bulbs of the iris, a few roots of a bitter and pun- 

 gent taste, and the larvae of ants and locusts are all it furnishes ; and 

 when these fail they are driven to the necessity of hazarding a toil- 

 some and dangerous expedition into the colony. 



Of the Gonaquas, and Hottentots in general, we shall give an ac- 

 count from M. Vaillant, a late French traveller :...." During the thirty- 

 six hours which I spent (says M. Vaillant) with the Gonaquas Hot- 

 tentots, I had time to make several observations concerning them. I 

 remarked that they made a clapping noise with their tongue, like the 

 rest of the Hottentots. When they accost any one, they stretch forth, 

 the hand, saying Tabe 1 I salute you. This word and ceremony, which 

 are employed by the Caffres, or Kaffers, are not used by the Hotten- 

 tots poperly so called. 



"This affinity of customs, manners, and even confirmation; their 

 being so near great Caffraria, and the accounts I afterwards received, 

 convinced me that these hordes of Gonaquas, who equally resemble 

 the Caffres and the Hottentots, must be a mixed breed produced by 

 these two nations. The dress of the men, arranged with more sym- 

 metry, has the same shape as that of the Hottentots ; but as the Gona- 

 quas are a little taller, they make their mantles of calves instead qf 

 sheeps skins ; they are both called kross. Several of them wear, hang- 

 ing from their necks, a bit of ivory, or very white sheep bone ; and this 

 contrast of the two colours produces a good effect, and is very becoming, 



" When the weather is excessively hot, the men lay aside every 

 part of their dress that is superfluous, and retain only what they name 

 their jackals. This is a piece of skin of the animal so called, with 

 which they cover what nature bids them conceal, and which is fastened 

 to their girdle. This veil, however, negligently arranged, may be 

 considered as an useless appendage, and is of very little service to 

 their modesty. The women, much fonder of dress than the men, em- 

 ploy more care in adorning their persons. They wear a kross like, 

 the latter, but the apron which conceals their sex is larger than that 

 of the Hottentots. During the great heats they retain only this apron, 

 with a skin which descends behind from their girdle to the calf of 

 the leg ; young girls below the age of nine years go perfectly naked ; 

 when they attain to that age they wear nothing but a small apron. 



" Whatever may be the extent of the deserts of Africa, we must 

 not form any calculation respecting its population from those innume- 

 rable swarms of blacks which are found on the west, and which bor- 

 der all the coasts of the ocean from the Canary Isles to the environs 

 of the Cape of Good Hope. There is certainly no proportion to enable 

 us to hazard even a conjecture ; since by a trade approved by a few, 

 and held in detestation by the greater number, the barbarous navi- 

 gators of Europe have induced these negroes, by the most villanous 

 attractions, to give up their prisoners, or those who are inferior to 

 them in strength. As their wants increased, they have become inhu- 

 man and perfidious beings : the prince has sold his subjects ; the 

 mother has sold her son ; and nature, as an accomplice, has rende r ed 

 her prolific 



