A F R I C A, 15^ 
legs as ouf goats, are alfo fuperlor to ours in 
fize. They have not, however, that enor- 
mous fat tail, by ^rhich thofe of the Cape and 
the plantations are diftingulfhed. My Hot* 
tentots, accuftomed, according to the tafte of 
their nation, to efteem no meat unlefs very 
fat, expreffed a kind of averlion to animab 
with a lean, flender fwitch of a tail hanging 
down to the ground. The (heep which the 
Dutch colony now poflefles came from Eu- 
rope. At firft it had no fheep ; and undoubt- 
edly thofe which were tranfported thither 
were without large tails, for this fingularity is 
unknown in Europe. Thefe tails therefore 
muft'have been acquired in Africa, from the 
change of food, foil, and climate, and thus was 
formed the variety now feen there. I had 
ftill one left, which I had purchafed on the 
road ; and feveral of the Nimiquas, who had 
never feen any thing like it, could not ceafe 
from admiring it. To the widow it was no 
novelty ; for fhe aflured me, that all her huf- 
band brought with him, when he removed 
into that country from Roye-Sand, his native 
place, were of the fame kind as mine ; but 
this property in time difappeared, and at the 
third 
