1812. 
GREAT HEAT. — A VISIT TO THE KRAAL. 
53 
should attend them as guides, to conduct them to the haunts of these 
anhnals. 
The great heat of the sun gradually thinning the number of the 
crowd, and compelling them to take shelter in their huts, I was 
left to enjoy some rest after the boisterous ceremonies and fatigues 
of the morning; while some of my Hottentots stretched themselves 
in the shade to sleep, and others who were able to converse with the 
natives, betook themselves to the huts. 
The fear, on so rough a journey, of breaking the only ther- 
mometer which I had remaining, induced me to leave it at Klaarwater 
till my return : consequently, all observations of this nature were 
suspended during the present expedition. In the meantime, the 
thermometrical value of such expressions as ' very hot,' &c. may be 
collected, by comparison, from the preceding and subsequent parts of 
the ' Itinerary.' 
My curiosity to view this Bushman village, would not suffer me 
to rest long ; and at noon, protected by my umbrella, from the 
scorching heat of the sun, I ascended alone to the kraal ; a distance 
not greater than four hundred yards. It consisted of twenty huts 
placed irregularly in a circular line, and contained about a hundred 
and twenty inhabitants, two-thirds of whom appeared to be females. 
This, therefore, among the Bushmen of this portion of the Cisgariepine, 
is rated as one of their largest kraals. 
I was received every where with smiling faces, as I quickly 
passed their huts, searching and inquiring for Ruiter. I now dis- 
covered that he had another name, and that among Bushmen, to 
which nation his mother belonged, he bore that of Arree, signifying, 
as I was told, one who has lost a tooth ; for in fact, his right eye-tooth 
was deficient. At length I found him and Nieuwveld, lying asleep 
in one of the houses. 
Seeing a small party of men sitting by the side of a hut, I went 
and seated myself down amongst them, and passed half an hour in 
* Similar to that which is represented by the vignette at the end of Chapter III. ; 
and to those which may be seen in the fourth plate. 
