BOOSH-WANNAH HUT. 
N° 7. 
The dwellings of this tribe are invariably surrounded by a high thick hedge, or 
paling of dry brushwood, forming a spacious court, which, in fine weather, serves 
all the purposes of an outward apartment, where, after the labours of the day, the 
family prepare and partake of their evening's repast. In the choice of situation, 
the shade of a tree is always preferred, and its boughs are preserved with religious 
care, although fuel is often brought from a considerable distance. The tree thus 
selected is generally the umbrella-like Mimosa. Their huts are constructed of 
well worked clay, with intervening pillars of wood for strengthening the walls, as 
well as supporting the roofs, which are closely thatched with strong grass, and 
bound together with leathern thongs. A hut generally consists of three concentric 
circles, the two interior ones being wall, and the outward one a range of wooden 
pillars, the whole forming three separate parts ; that in the centre is chiefly used 
as a magazine wherein their property, such as skins, ornaments, &c. are deposited; 
on the outside of this is an enclosed gallery resorted to when the rains have ren- 
dered the outward court untenable ; and beyond this part, and looking immediately 
into the court, is a kind of narrow Viranda, which is at once convenient and orna- 
mental ; but the,most curious of this kind of manufacture is their granaries, or re- 
positories of/pSfe, millet, and kidney-beans. These are composed of fine clay 
baked in the sun, shaped like oil-jars, from five to six feet high, and capable of 
containing from a hundred and eighty to two hundred and twenty gallons ; they 
are raised from the ground by three feet, and are covered with a roof of thatch. 
These, and most of their implements and utensils, are made by the women : for 
here, as in other parts, the men are chiefly employed in the chace, and in tending 
their cattle. 
BOOSH-WANNAHS. 
THE PALLAH. 
N° 8. 
N° 9. 
The Boosh-wannahs, commonly called Briequas, are a tribe of KafFers but little 
known to the Colonists of the Cape ; the country they inhabit lies to the northward, 
and extends from the twenty-seventh degree south to the tropic of Capricorn. Rude 
as they still are, they far surpass all the tribes of Hottentots, and even the KafFers 
on the eastern coast in agriculture and useful arts. Having less of that disposition 
to wander, so prevalent among the natives of Southern Africa, their dwellings are 
more substantially built than those of their neighbours; from which they differ 
both in their form and materials. They are evidently a mixed race of people, and 
distinguished under no general physical character. In habit and disposition they 
strongly resemble the other Kaffer tribes; though a difference is observable in some 
of their customs : for instance in cultivating their ground, instead of the Kerie, 
they make use of a kind of iron hoe, which serves also for an axe; and in place of 
the reed basket, in use among the KafFers for holding their milk, it is kept by 
them in leathern bags ; both of which utensils are borne by the female figure, with 
the child tied on her back. The rude instrument held by the middle figure, is a 
kind of Hooker made of horn, through which they draw the smoke of tobacco. 
They wear feathers in their hair, and decorate their neck, arms, legs, and waist, 
with beads. 
In war they make use of shields formed of dried hides. Their Hassagai, or 
spear, unlike that of the KafFers, resembles the common harpoon. Besides several 
other implements not found among the other tribes, they have parasols made of 
Ostrich feathers, double edged knives, and vessels made of earth, in which they 
boil their milk and millet. 
1 he animal here represented is a species of Antelope, which it does not appear 
has hitherto been described. It is a native of the Boosh-wannah district, where it 
is met with in great numbers, but seldom in more than two or three together. It 
is three feet high, and its length from the root of the horns to the rump is four feet 
two inches. Its general distinguishing characters are, horns lyre-shaped, annulated ; 
ears long, particularly in the female, edged and tipped with black ; a tuft of black 
hair above the hinder fetlock joint; feet white, legs remarkably long in proportion 
to the body. In swiftness it is little, if at all, inferior to the Spring-bok, but its 
gait is different. It is an animal easily tamed, and when taken young is ex- 
tremely docile. 
In the Boosh-wannah country, and in many places near the Orange river, the 
trees are frequently loaded with the nests of a small bird of the Finch kind, which 
being aggregated under one general roof exhibits a very singular appearance, of 
which some examples are introduced in this plate, covering sometimes a space from 
twelve to twenty feet in width. They are constructed of a dry, harsh, rigid, grass, 
and the openings into the separate nests on the underside, are so contrived as to 
render difficult any passage into them, and protect the eggs and young ones within 
from birds of prey, snakes and other reptiles. These nests have been mentioned 
by Patterson and Barrow; and the former has given a drawing of the bird. 
