CATTLE-STATIONS. — MILK; AND MILK-BAGS. 
523 
are desirous of concealing the burial-places of their friends, or at 
least, that they have no wish to perpetuate a knowledge of the spot 
by setting up any mark over the grave, as I no where could distin- 
guish even the smallest appearance of any memorial of this nature. 
On the contrary, I have heard it frequently repeated, that they often 
leave the corpses in the plains, as food for hyenas and vultures ; 
though it is not in my power to vouch for the correctness of this in- 
formation. The former Chief, Mulihaban, who died only three 
months before my arrival at Litakun, was buried in the cattle-pound 
next to the enclosure where my waggons were stationed ; and I 
know that it was the law, that no one might enter that mootsi with 
sandals or shoes on ; and that my Hottentots to avoid the trouble of 
taking theirs off, usually employed one of the natives to drive out 
my oxen in the morning. Whether this law, or observance, was in- 
tended as public respect for the dead, or arose from some feelings of 
superstition, it could not be clearly ascertained ; but it probably is to 
be attributed to the latter cause. 
As it would be impossible to find, in the vicinity of the town, 
pasturage for the whole of the cattle belonging to its inhabitants, 
they retain at home no greater number than their wants render 
absolutely necessary ; the rest being distributed at the various cattle- 
stations, and entrusted to the care of their own servants or herdsmen, 
or to the younger branches of their family. From these stations the 
milk is sent once or twice in the week, according to their greater or 
less distance from town. 
The milk thus sent, soon changes its nature, and on its arrival, is 
always found converted to that kind which they call mdshe (or ?ndshi) a 
buriila (sour or thick milk) ; and by the shaking which it receives on 
the journey, little balls of butter are most frequently produced in the 
bags, the only mode of churning which they are acquainted with, and, 
I believe, the only occasions on which that substance is produced. 
These milk-bags are made of a piece of ox-hide sewed together in 
the manner and form shown in the 42nd vignette hereafter described ; 
and in the 6th plate may be seen the usual appearance of an ox with 
a load of milk, returning to town from one of the distant stations. 
3x 2 
