1812. FOOD. — VIEW OF THE TOWN. — UNLUCKY-WOOD. 451 
Neither on this occasion, nor on any other during my travels 
among the Bichuanas, was I ever invited to partake of their meals. 
It is not however to be inferred that their greediness is so excessive 
that they never give away food ; since some of my own men have 
now and then received a portion from Mattivi's bowl, and have some- 
times eaten corn and milk in several houses at Litakun. But the 
notion which these people seem to have of white-men, is, that they 
are so inexhaustibly rich, that from the moment when they first set 
foot on the Bachapin territory, it is their duty to be constantly 
making presents to the natives, who think themselves to be a nation 
possessed comparatively of so little, that they ought to be receivers 
only, and under no obligation to do a favor in return, or to express 
their gratitude in any other manner than by words. Judging from 
their general conduct, one would conclude that they suppose that 
the white-men who visit them, can never while in this land, be in 
want of food or of the least assistance of that kind ; but are, on the 
contrary, able to feed as many natives as chuse to seat themselves 
round their fire. 
From the hills on which we were standing, of which the outside, 
at least, is formed of loose angular blocks of red sand-stone, the view 
is that of a most extensive plain. The jjrospect, looking down upon 
the town, is totally unlike every thing but itself, and well worth the 
trouble of climbing the rocks. The whole plan of Litakun, (which 
will be more particularly described in the seventeenth chapter,) and 
of its clusters of houses, of the dwellings themselves, and of the ad- 
joining mootsies, is here seen at once, as distinctly as on a map. 
On this hill, between the rocks and stones, grow a few shrubby 
plants ; but as they are continually broken for firewood, or browsed 
upon by the goats, few therefore are to be found of any size ex- 
cepting the Vangueria infausta. Among the numberless super- 
stitious and absurd beliefs, is that which has been already mentioned, 
as attributing to this shrub an unlucky influence over those who use 
it for fuel : consequently there was here an abundance of decayed 
and dry wood : a circumstance very fortunate for us, as otherwise we 
must have sought our firewood at the distance of a mile or two from 
3 M 2 
