]812. KEYSER'S ANECDOTES. — POISON-DRINKERS. 331 
each other their various adventures, and accounts of Bushmen ; and 
among their descriptions, one given by Keyser, of a Hottentot of 
Sneeuwberg being pierced by so many arrows that when they found 
his body he looked more Hke a porcupine than a man, was in the 
genuine style of African anecdote. 
Few Hottentots knew more histories of this kind, than Keyser ; 
and being of short stature, in features not unlike a Bushman, and 
speaking that language fluently, his companions would sometimes 
teaze him, by pretending to believe that he was really a wild Bushman 
who had been caught when young, and brought up in a boor's family. 
He was, however, a Colonial Hottentot ; and from much experience 
in such affairs, his anecdotes relative to the colonists proved that these 
had frequently suffered great losses in cattle, from the incursions of the 
Bushmen j but that they had sometimes taken unsparing vengeance 
on the offenders. He asserted from his own knowledge, that a Hot- 
tentot, who had gradually and by small doses habituated himself to 
the practice of swallowing the poison of snakes, for the purpose of 
rendering his blood unsusceptible of its effects, was once severely 
wounded by a Bushman's arrow ; yet though the wound would other- 
wise have been certainly mortal, he did not die. That the blood may 
be thus fortified against the consequences of a poisoned wound, is a 
very common belief among Hottentots ; but it did not appear that 
they often tried this mode, as those few who ventured, were particu- 
larly distinguished among them as gift-drinkers (poison-drinkers). 
The Hottentots of that part of the Colony northward of Graaff- 
reynet, call the bordering tribes of Bushmen, Sdqua or Saakwa ; but 
the Klaarwater Hottentots, and the Koras, as Muchunka told me, 
designate the Bushmen living southward of the Gariep by the names 
of ^ K^sakykwa or Kisakwa (Kowsaqua), which imply ' men beyond 
the river.' Those who inhabit the northern side of that river, are 
called Nusakwa (Noosaqua), a name of correspondent import. 
ItJi, I was visited by a Bachapin, apparently of a poorer class 
than those whom we had last seen. I offered him some snuff, and 
learnt by his refusal, that, however general the custom of taking snuff 
may be among his countrymen, it is not universal. Tobacco, for 
u u 2 
