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TRAVELS IN 
mal for home consumption, that can be kept. They go 
twenty weeks with young, and seldom have less than two at 
a birth, very commonly three, and frequently four. The flesh, 
though much inferior to mutton, is thought quite good enough 
for the Hottentots in the service of the farmer ; and the choice 
pieces, well soaked in the fat of sheeps' tails, are served upon 
his own table. 
The wool of the sheep may more properly be considered 
as a strong frizzled hair, of which they make no kind of use 
except for stuffing cushions or matresses. They neither wash 
nor shear their sheep, but suffer this hairy coating to drop off 
on its own accord, which it usually does in the months of 
September and October. The skins are used only as clothing 
for the Hottentots, aprons for their children, bags for holding 
various articles, and other household purposes. 
A hog is a species of animal scarcely known in the district. 
No other reason than indolence can be assigned for the want 
of it. To feed hogs there would be a necessity of planting, 
and to this kind of labor they seem to have a mortal antipathy. 
It requires indeed more than usual exertion to throw a little 
corn into the ground for their own bread. Many are not 
even at the trouble of doing this, but prefer the making a 
journey of several days to exchange their cattle for as much 
corn as they may stand in need of. To potatoes they have an 
aversion; and, according to their report, the Hottentots even, 
whose stomachs are not very nice, refuse to eat them. It is 
curious enough that this salutary root (though of a poisonous 
nature in its raw state) has been generally rejected at first by 
