i66 TRAVELS IN 
fubalterns, and all their decrees, are to him 
only fignals for comnaitting frefh crimes. 
Without entering further into converfa- 
tlon, or alking more queftions, which would 
have been unfeafonable, I gave permiflion to 
the CafFres to advance, Hans therefore 
made a fign to them with his hand, and in 
a moment I found myfelf furrounded. With^ 
out comprehending my envoys, there were 
in all nineteen men, five women, and two 
young children. They faluted me, one after 
the other, by the word tabc, which I knew 
as well as thgy, and which was all the an* 
fwer I made tp their compliments ; but I 
iinderftopd very little of their language. In 
their pronunpiation they did not employ 
that clapping ufcd by the Hottentots ; but 
what fliewed their difference from the Go- 
iiaquas moft fenfibly, was their manner of 
fainting. They all fpokp together, and with 
a precipitation and volubility which appeared 
to me fo much the ftranger, as I had been for 
alrnoft a year accuftomed to the flow manner 
of my indolent Hottentots. I could not 
conceive to what caufe tliis confufed noife 
lyhfcji buzzed in my ears was to be imputed ; 
