272 
BEAUTY OF LANDSCAPE. — KOSI. 
21 June, 
which a few reeds indicate to the traveller the situation of the water. 
On the borders of the valley, and in several other places, a con- 
siderable number of acacias, forming a little wood or grove, add 
greatly to the pleasant appearance of the spot : and behind them, on 
the side towards the north, a long ridge of rocky hills, stretches east- 
ward and westward. 
In the character of the la7idscape and its peculiar tints, a painter 
would find much to admire, though it differed entirely from the 
species known by the term ' picturesque'. But it was not the less 
beautiful : nor less deserving of being studied by the artist : it was 
that kind of Imrmonious beauty which belongs to the extensive plains 
of Southern Africa. The pale yellow dry grass gave the prevailing 
color, and long streaks of bushes as it seemed, parallel to the horizon 
and gradually fading into the distance, sufficiently varied the unifor- 
mity of a plain ; while clumps of the soft and elegant acacia, pre- 
sented a feature which relieved these long streaks by an agreeable 
change of tint, and by the most pleasing forms backed by low azure 
hills in the farthest distance. Our horses and oxen grazing close at 
hand, added a force to the foreground, and, by contrast, improving the 
tenderness of the general colouring, completed a landscape, perhaps 
altogether inimitable ; but which, if put on canvass, would form a 
picture of the most fascinating kind, and prove to European painters, 
that there exists in this department of the art, a species of beauty 
with which, possibly, they may not yet be sufficiently acquainted. 
This fountain takes its name from a Bachapin chief who formerly 
resided here. The word kosi in the Sichuana language signifies rich-, 
and is by metonymy therefore used to imply a chief, as riches seem 
in all countries, in the early stages of society, to have been the origin 
of power and importance, and the principal source from which 
individuals have derived permanent authority. Whether the word 
was in this case the proper name of the chief or merely an appella- 
tive, my interpreter was unable to state ; but I have remarked that 
with this nation, appellatives are very commonly assumed as proper 
names. 
Scarcely were the oxen unyoked, when a large mixed herd of 
