370 TRAVELS IN 
too narrow in its dimensions to admit the huge carcase of an 
African boor, obliged them to have recourse to the expediei>t 
of sending in a thin Hottentot girl ; but, on account of the 
peculiar shape of the women of this nation, the lower part of 
the body refused to follow where the head had passed, and she 
stuck fast in the window. This produced a prodigious burst 
of boisterous mirth ; the girl, however, after a great deal of 
squeezing and pushing, effected the purpose, and procured 
for the tumultuous boors a supply of their favorite liquors. 
To prevent a return, we barred in the window, and having thus 
completely made ourselves masters of the cellar, the boors, af- 
ter several vollies of imprecations, accompanied with thunder- 
ing assaults, sometimes at the door, and then at the windaw, 
thought fit about midnight to leave the house, in search of 
another jovial neighbour at the distance, perhaps, of eight ar 
ten miles. This scene would have afforded an excellent sub^> 
ject for the pencil of Ostade, who, if we may form a conclu- 
sion from his pictures, must have been witness to many of 
the same kind. 
The noise of the Bacchanalians was accompanied by a 
storm of thunder ; and the rain, that fell in the course of the 
night, had rendered the air the next morning cool and refresh- 
ing. It was the first shower that had fallen in this part of the 
country for near four months, and the effects of it on the 
ground were very sensibly perceived in the course of four 
days. 
At this season of the year, when the earth is thoroughly 
lieated, the rapidity with which vegetation bursts fortli, aftev 
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