Feb.] the LIMITS OF THE COLONY. 
29 
an apparently inaccessible rampart, that no person 
had been able to scale it. The rock-goat, how- 
ever, he informed us, had found its way to a 
place, which no human foot had ever yet trod, 
where it lives secure from the mischievous pro- 
pensities of man, 
Mr. Smit, from a child, has had much inter- 
course with Bushmen, and can speak their lan- 
guage as well as any native. He said that 
they did not believe in a God, or the great 
father of men, but in the devil, who, they affirm, 
made every thing with his left hand ; that they 
believe they shall rise again from the dead ; for, 
when they bury the dead, they lay the body on 
the ground, with an assagais,* covering both with 
bushes and stones. They put the assagais by his 
side, that when he arises he may have something 
to defend himself with, and procure a living ; 
but, if they hate the dead person, they deposit 
no assagais, that when he arises he may either 
be murdered or starved. They suppose, that some 
time after they arise they shall go to a land where 
there will be abundance of excellent food.f They 
* Or spear. 
t This knowledge, confused and corrupted as it is, is far 
beyond the reach of most Bushmen, and very probably is 
confined to that part of the country where, for many years, the 
inhabitants have had intercourse with tlie boors in the colony. 
