120 
TRAVELS IN 
demeanor, wliicli, added to the good nature that overspread 
their features, shewed them at once to be equally uncon- 
scious of fear, suspicion, and treachery. A young man about 
twenty, of six feet ten inches high, was one of the finest 
figures that perhaps was ever created. He was a perfect 
Hercules ; and a cast from his body would not have dis- 
graced the pedestal of that deity in the Farnese palace. 
Man}'^ of them had indeed very much the appearance of 
bronze figures. Their skin, which was nearly black, and 
their sbort curling hair, were rubbed over with a solution of 
red ochre, and the tint it produced on the dark ground was 
very far from having any disagreeable effect. Some few 
were covered with skin-cloaks, but the greater part were 
entirely naked. The women wore long cloaks that extended 
below the calf of the leg ; and their heads were covered Avith 
leather-caps ornamented with beads, with shells, and with 
pieces of polished copper and iron, that were disposed in a 
variety of forms ; but the fashion of the cap was nearly the 
same in all. 
We distributed a quantity of tobacco among the women, 
who carried it as a welcome present to their fathers and 
husbands, who had not proved such successful pleaders as 
the females. In the evening they sent us in return some 
baskets of milk. These baskets were made from a species 
of cyperiis, a strong reedy grass that grew in the springs 
of Zuure Veldt. The workmanship was exceedingly clever 
and neat, and the texture so close that they were capable 
of containing the thinnest fluid. The women informed us 
Xiicd the making of tliese baskets was one part of their 
