OR, PLAIN 



The Hottentots, 14, are of a 

 yellowish colour, with high cheek 

 bones, wide apart ; lower portion 

 of the face narrow ; nose flat and 



14 



458. 



broad ; eyes small, and distant 

 from each other ; hair in tufts. 

 They are a mild and inoffensive 

 race ; but have yet made little 

 progress towards civilization. 

 Those in the immediate vicinity 

 of the Cape, have become subject 

 to European influence : but the 

 tribes in the interior still retain 

 their primitive habits : they mi- 

 grate from place to place, leading 

 an indolent and wandering life, 

 living in dirty krals, or huts, 1, 

 composed of mats, stretched over 

 a frame of sticks ; they have 

 warrior leaders or chiefs, 2, the 

 women carry their babies on 

 their backs, 3, and the aged, 4, 

 remain at home to watch the 

 krals, while the younger ones go 

 forth to hunt. 



The huts of the Hottentots are built exactly 

 alike ; and we may readily give credit to tra- 

 v illers when they tell us that they are done in a 

 style of architecture which does not a little con- 

 tribute to keep envy from insinuating itself 



TEACHING. 143 



under then* roofs. Some ol these huts are 

 circular, and others of an oolong shape, re- 

 sembling a round bee-hive or vault ; the ground - 



15 



4o9. 



plot being from eighteen to twenty-four feet in 

 diameter. The highest are so low, that it is 

 scarce ever possible for a middle-sized mar to 

 stand upright even in the centre of the arch. 

 " But neither the lowness thereof, nor that 

 of the door, which is but just three feet 

 high, can, perhaps, be considered as any in- 

 convenience to an Hottentot, who finds no 

 difficulty in stooping and crawling upon aLl 

 fours, and is at any time more inclined to lie 

 down than to stand." The fire-place is in the 

 middle of each hut, by which means the walls 

 are not so much exposed to danger from fire. 

 From this situation of the fire-place also the 

 Hottentots derive this additional advantage, 

 that they can all sit or lie in a circle round it, 

 enjoying equally the warmth of the fire. The 

 door, low as it is, alone lets in daylight, or lets 

 out the smoke : and so much are these people 

 accustomed to live in such smoky mansions, that 

 their eyes are never affected by it in the least, 

 nor even by the mephitic vapour of the fuel, 

 which to Europeans would be certain death. 



There is a tribe of Hottentots 

 named Bosjesmen or Bushmen, 5, 

 who dwell in the woody and 

 mountainous parts, forming the 

 northern boundary of the Cape 

 colony. They are savage in the 

 extreme, and perhaps beyond 

 any other race in existence, de- 

 formed and miserable, destitute 

 of any knowledge of cultivation, 

 and, occupying the most dreary 

 and barren tracts, they find the 

 utmost difficulty in obtaining a 

 scanty supply of food. Wild 



