TRAVELS IN 
thirty-second degree of latitude on the east coast, and the 
twenty-fifth on the west. Beyond the line, connecting 
these two points, the various KafFer tribes occupy a 
broad belt quite across the continent; and no two people 
can differ more than the Bosjesmans and the Kaffers, hav- 
ing no one agieement either in their physical or their moral 
character. 
The Bosjesman, though in every respect a Hottentot, yet 
in his turn of mind differs very widely from those of this nation 
who live in the colony. In his disposition he is lively and 
chearful ; in his person active. His talents are far above me- 
diocrity ; and, averse to idleness, he is seldom without employ- 
ment. Confined generally to their hovels by day, for fear of 
being surprised and taken by the boors, they sometimes dance 
on moon-light nights from the setting to the rising of the sun. 
They are said to bej^particularly joj'ful at the approach of the 
first thunder-storm after the winter, which they consider as so 
infallible a token of the summer having commenced, that they 
tear in pieces their skin-coverings, throw them in the air, and 
dance for several successive nights. The small circular trod- 
den places around their huts indicated their fondness for this 
amusement. His chearfulness is the more extraordinary, as 
the morsel he procures to support existence is earned with 
danger and fatigue. He neither cultivates the ground nor 
breeds cattle ; and his country yields few natural productions 
that serve for food. The bulbs of the iris, and a few grami- 
neous roots of a bitter and pungent taste, are all that the vege- 
table kingdom affords him. By the search of these the whole 
surface of the plains near the horde was scratched. Another 
article of his food is the larvae of ants. Whether the soil of 
the grassy plains, near the Sea-Cow river, be too rich for the 
