268 
A DIFFERENT TRIBE OF BUSHMEN. 
20, 21 June, 
immediately commenced between us. The two men running off 
with guns, who had occasioned among my people so much conster- 
nation, were now found to have been, Speelman and Keyser in pur- 
suit of a buffalo, and who, having followed the animal between the 
hills without being able to overtake it, had turned back by another 
way, to meet us. 
The Bushmen, now about ten or twelve in number, remained 
with us till the next morning, and were entertained with a few pipes 
of tobacco, and as much meat as they could devour. I observed that 
the natural color of their skin was much lighter than it had appeared 
to me among the other tribes of this nation which I had hitherto 
examined. Whether these men kept their persons more free from 
dirt, or whether they were really of a less tawny complexion than 
the others, can not be positively decided ; but their skin was cer- 
tainly, not much darker than that of the browner nations of Europe. 
In their costume, with respect to that part of their dress which 
has been already described * under the name of jackal, they had 
adopted the more compact fashion of the Bichuanas ; and this de- 
parture from the genuine dress of the Hottentot race, was doubtlessly 
occasioned by their proximity to, and their intercourse with, those 
nations. Their stature also was larger than that of the pure Bush- 
men : a circumstance which was attributable probably to a mixture 
with the Koras ; but certainly not to any consanguinity with the 
Bachapins, as this would rather have given them a darker, than a 
lighter, skin. The features also of this party, were of a more 
agreeable mould. Five of them were merely boys in appearance, 
yet all were completely armed ; and, besides two bows at their back, 
some carried in their hand a bundle of four or five hassagays. 
Several wore a necklace of a new kind, composed of the seeds or 
beans of one of their wild plants, f 
At five in the afternoon we arrived at a plentiful spring of water, 
surrounded by a grove of Acacias ; and as Muchunka was unac- 
* At page 397. of the first volume, 
f Acacia elephantina, B. 
