168 
SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
few instances, however, you meet with a spark 
of natural affection, which places them on a 
level with the brute creation." 
These creatures are altogether the slaves of 
passion ; and even the females seem as barba- 
rous as the men — no softness of heart or nature 
appearing to characterize their sex. They are 
wanting, as above described, even in what we 
term the common instincts of a fallen, vitiated 
nature ; for, from equally authentic sources, as 
those from which we have already quoted, we 
have heard, that on the least pretext they will 
murder their offspring without compunction 
on their own part, and without any crime 
being imputed to them by their companions. 
If pursued by enemies, if in great want of food, 
when the child is born deformed or ill-shaped, 
or in cases of spite or revenge to the father, 
the mother frequently has been known to smo- 
ther her infant, strangle it, bury it alive, or 
casting it from her, leave it exposed, to perish 
of famine or drought, or, perhaps, to be de- 
voured by the wild beasts, in the scorching 
plains of their desert habitations. 
They, not unfrequently also, forsake their 
aged parents and relatives, when obliged to 
move their location ; and, making " the trouble 
of carrying them," or " their uselessness," the 
frivolous excuse for their brutality, they leave 
