1812. 
AN OLD BUSHWOMAN. 
195 
beak was straight and long as in the Percnopterus, and the end of it 
was hooked and orange-coloured.* 
One of the old Bushwomen was so characteristic a specimen of her 
nation at that age, that I made her sit for her portrait. This was no 
inconvenience to her, as she naturally sat like an inanimate mass. 
She scarcely, indeed, looked like a human being : a rough sheep-skin 
kaross, only served to give her a more shapeless appearance ; and 
eyes so sunken as hardly to be visible, together with large clots of 
red ochre hanging over and covering her forehead, gave to her 
miserable dirty wrinkled visage, the strongest character of poverty 
wretchedness and neglect. 
The two Bushmen, whom I sent off yesterday at about one 
o'clock in the afternoon, had made such surprising expedition, that 
at four o'clock this day, they returned with the two oxen ; having 
travelled on foot a distance of sixty miles within fifteen hours ; from 
which is to be subtracted the time required for their meals and rest. 
They were accompanied by four of their countrymen, who came with 
a request from Kaabi that I would send him some tobacco. As soon 
as they received this, and had hastily taken some refreshment, they 
started again, to return home. 
I was now informed that Kaabi and all his people had for the 
present removed their kraal from where I first saw it, to a distance of 
several miles farther northward. Here they were expecting us, and 
accordingly sent word that they wished me to deviate from our old 
track along the river, that we might take this new kraal in our way. 
ISth. With the addition to my own party, of the people and 
cattle who were removing to join Kaabi, we formed a strong caravan, 
and perhaps as motley and singular a group as ever could be formed 
into a picture. The whole affair appeared so curious and strange, 
and the circumstances so unlike every thing English, that, happening 
* Vultur pileatus, B. 
Totus fuliginoso-niger. Colli pars superior nuda pallide rosea. Caput pennatum 
nigrum. Rostrum capita multo longius, rectum, apice adunco aurantiaco. Species inter 
majores. 
cc 2 
