SEPT.] 
BUSHMEN. 
441 
as to dig up roots, they suffer exceedingly. Their huts 
are the smallest of any of the nations I visited, and 
many of them have not even that accommodation, but 
sleep in dens and caves on the mountains. Their 
country being next to the Colony of Good Hope, 
some of them have seen the habitations and other con- 
veniences of civilized men, and likewise those of the 
missionary stations, but they do not consider their 
condition as worse than the condition of the civilized. 
When people are kind to them, and gain their friend- 
ship, they may be confided in, but if they are offended, 
they will try to murder in revenge for the offence. 
They have no other animals than dogs, and they use 
them well. They often obtain game by means of their 
bow and arrows, and also by making deep holes in the 
earth, into which the game fails, and sometimes by 
poisoning the waters to which the animals come to drink. 
They are all fond of tobacco. Many of ihem live to 
a considerable age. They make no provision for those 
whom they are to leave behind when they die. 
The Bushmen near the mouth of the Great River, 
on the birth of their children, rub them all over with 
sand, and when a week old, burn off all the hair that 
may be on their heads with withered grass, because 
they think the first hair is not good. Whether the cus* 
torn be universal among that people I could not learn. 
The Bushmen and Namactjuaas affirm, that persons 
undergoing a certain process cannot be poisoned. 
3 L 
