S34 TRAVELS IN 
not materially have encreased the pain to the beast ; not for 
the sake of proving the delicacy of an Abyssinian beef-steak, 
quivering with life, but to have observed the progress of the 
wound. In three or four days the gashes were skinned over, 
and appeared to give the animal little uneasiness, but the ci- 
catrices would always remain ; and from these sort of scars on 
the bodies of many of the oxen, it is to be feared that cutting 
is a practice but too common among them, notwithstanding 
that most of the peasantry of the party seemed to be shocked 
at it. This was the second instance of the kind that I had 
occasion, to witness in the course of this tour ; the other was 
perhaps the more cruel, as it was exercised on parts of the 
body more susceptible of pain, namely, the nose and the 
tongue. In the latter instance the animal bellowed most 
hideously, burst from the yoke, and plunging into the thick- 
ets, made his escape. Even in the neighbourhood of the 
Cape, where, from a more extended civilization, one would 
expect a greater degree of humanity, several atrocious acts of 
the kind are notorious. One of the inhabitants, better known 
from his wealth and his vulgarity than from any good quality 
he possesses, boasts that he can at any time start his team 
on a full gallop by whetting his knife only on the side of the 
waggon. In exhibiting this masterly experiment, the effect 
of a long and constant perseverance in brutality, to some of 
his friends, the waggon was overturned, and one of the com- 
pany, unluckily not the proprietor, had his leg broken. Hot- 
tentot's Holland's kloof, a steep pass over the first range of 
mountains beyond the promontory of the Cape, has been the 
scene of many an instance of this sort of cruelty. I have 
iieard a fellow boast that, after cutting ,and slashing one of 
