200 COUNTRY OF THE HOTTENTOTS, 



" Those oxen which they intend for carrying burdens must be broke 

 and trained very early to the service, otherwise they would become 

 absolutely untractable. On this account, when the animal is still 

 young, they pierce the cartilage which separates the nostrils, and 

 thrust through the hole a piece of stick about eight or ten inches in 

 length, and almost an inch in diameter. The task of milking the cows 

 and the ewes belongs to the women : and, as they never beat or tor- 

 ment them, they are surprisingly tractable. 



" Of their sheep and kine each village has one common herd ; every 

 inhabitant taking it in his turn to be herdsman. This charge requires 

 many precautions very different from those which are taken by our 

 herdsmen, beasts of prey being much more numerous and fierce in 

 the southern parts of Africa than in Europe. Lions, indeed, are 

 not very common ; but there are elephants, rhinoceroses, leopards, 

 tigers, hyaenas, and several kinds of wolves more destructive than 

 ours, together with many other furious animals that abound in the 

 forests, and occasionally make excursions towards the Cape, and 

 destroy the tame cattle. To prevent these misfortunes, it is the bu- 

 siness of the herdsman to go or send every day round his district, in 

 order to discover if any beast of prey be lurking in that quarter : in 

 which case he assembles the whole village together, and makes his 

 report ; when a party of the stoutest among them arm themselves 

 with javelins and poisoned arrows, and follow the person who may 

 have discovered the beast, to the cave or covert where he is lodged. 

 Here they arrange themselves in two lines ; the herdsman entering 

 the cave, and endeavouring to provoke the beast to follow him out, 

 when he is inevitably destroyed. 



" These savages measure the year by the seasons of drought and 

 rainy weather. This division is common to all the inhabitants of the 

 tropical regions, and it is sub-divided into moons ; but they never 

 count the days if they exceed ten, that is to say, the number of their 

 fingers. Beyond that, they mark the day or the time by some remark- 

 able occurrence : for example, an extraordinary storm, an elephant 

 killed, an infectious disorder among the cattle, an emigration, Sec. 

 The different parts of the day they distinguish by the course of the 

 sun : and they will tell you, pointing with their finger, He was there 

 when I departed, and here when I arrived. 



" A sense of delicacy induces the Hottentots to keep themselves 

 separate from others when they are sick, they are then seldom seen, 

 and it would appear that they are ashamed of having lost their health. 

 " When a Hottentot dies, he is buried in his worst kross, and the 

 limbs are disposed in such a manner that the whole body is covered. 

 The relations then carry it to a certain distance from the horde, and 

 disposing it in a pit dug for this purpose, and which is never deep, 

 cover it with earth, and then with stones, if any are to be found in the 

 neighbourhood. Such a mausoleum proves but a very weak defence 

 against the attacks of the jackal and the hyaena ; the body indeed is 

 soon dug up and devoured. However badly this last duty may be 

 discharged, the Hottentots are not much to be blamed, when we call 

 to mind the funeral ceremonies of the ancient and celebrated Parsis, 

 still attached to the custom of exposing their dead on the tops of high 

 towers, or in open cemetries, in order that the cows and the vultures 

 may feed upon them and carry them away in morsels. The children, 

 and, failing them, the nearest relations of the deceased, take posses- 

 sion of whatever is left j but the quality of a chief is not hereditary. He 



