96 
TRAVELS IN 
the age of five-aiul-twent j, all the children of the Hottentots in 
his service lo whom he had given in their infancy a morsel of 
meat. At the expiration of this period the odds are ten to one 
that the slave is not emancipated. A Hottentot knows nothing 
of his age ; *' he takes no note of time." And though the spi- 
rit that dictated this humane law expanded its beneficence in 
favor of the Hottentot by directing the farmer to register the 
bii th of such children as he may intend to make his slaves, yet 
it seldom happens, removed as many of them are to the distance 
of ten or twelve days' journey from the Drosdy, that the Hot- 
tentot has an opportunity of inquiring when his servitude will 
expire ; and indeed it is a chance if he thinks upon or even 
knows the existence of such a resource. Should he be fortu- 
nate enough to escape at the end of the period, the best part 
of his life has been spent in a profitless servitude, and he is 
turned adrift in the decline of life (for a Hottentot begins 
to grow old at thirty) without any earthly thing he can call 
his own, except the sheep's skin upon his back. 
The condition of those who engage themselves from year to 
year is little better than that of the other. If they have al- 
ready families, they erect for them little straw-huts near the 
farm-house. Their children are encouraged to run about 
the house of the peasant, where they receive their morsel of 
food. This alone is deemed sufficient to establish their claim 
to the young Hottentots ; and should the parents, at the end 
of the term for which they engaged, express a desire to quit 
the service, the farmer will probably suffer them to go, perhaps 
turn them away, but he will detain their children. 
2 
