AFRICA. 357 
my reludance, I could not avoid believing 
Soon, however, I was undeceived. Where- 
ever I afl^ed any queftions on the fubjeft, I 
faw that the, people to whom I addreffed my- 
felf were ready to laugh in my face. Still, as 
it appeared ftrange to me, that a man fhould 
talk of what he had feen, when he had in re- 
ality feen nothing j as it was poflible, that the 
fable might ' have fome foundation, without 
being true in all its particulars ; I was willing 
to convince myfelf what could have given rife 
to it ; and, every time I vifited a horde, I took 
eare, under different pretences, to examine, one 
after another, all the huts of the kraal, and to 
afk which was the eldeft child of the family : 
but I no where faw any thing that indicated 
either this pretended coop, or this pretended 
cramming* 
It is probable that fuch a tale may have 
originated among the planters refiding on the 
Namero, and in the neighbourhood of the 
•country of the Nimiquas; that it was a plea- 
fantry of fome wit of the place on the lean- 
jiefs of thefe people,, which indeed Is extreme ; 
and that Klaas Bafter, the fon of a fiottentot 
A a 3 and 
