1812. 
A HOTTENTOT VILLAGE. — WIRE-GRASS. 
7 
The situation of this httle village, if such an appellation does not 
express too much, was exceedingly sheltered and rural : on one side 
embosomed in a grove of tall acacias, overtopped by the surrounding 
mountains ; on the other, enclosed by a rocky precipice, under which 
stood their mat-houses and the cattle-kraals. Their oxen and goats 
appeared to be numerous, and were seen every where around, coming- 
home from pasture. There was a small garden fenced round with a 
dry hedge, and irrigated by a trench which conducted water from a 
spring not far off ; and in it were cultivated chiefly tobacco, maize, 
pumpkins, and dakka. The lowing of the oxen, the milking of the 
cows, and the playfulness of the goats butting against each other, or 
familiarly browsing close to the huts, or mingling with the dogs and 
cattle, gave a truly pastoral character to the spot ; while the abun- 
dance of trees rendered the scene rich and harmonious to the eye, and 
solicited the attempts of my pencil. 
In verdure and beauty, the wire-grass far excelled every other grass 
of the valley ; and I doubt not that its qualities, in an agricultural 
view of them, would equally prove its superiority in the climate of 
the Gariep. At least, analogy with the wire-grass of St. Helena and 
the doop-grass of India, induces me to form this opinion, and to re- 
commend a trial of it to the agriculturists of Africa : and if, indeed, 
this be not identically the same species, it so closely resembles it, as 
hardly to be distinguished but by a botanist. In this romantic valley 
it formed a thicker turf, and appeared of a softer and finer nature, 
than any other grasses which have fallen under my notice in these 
regions. 
A trifling circumstance which happened here, is worth mention- 
ing, because it confirms what has been asserted on a former occasion *, 
respecting the faculty possessed by these natives, of distinguishing and 
recognising their cattle individually. In the team which drew my 
waggon, were several oxen, all of an uniformly black color, and ap 
Vol. I. page 175. 
