62 
JOURNEY FROM 
[1820. 
after grinding the tobacco between two stones 
into snufF mixed it with the white ashes of the 
fire ; the mother then took a large pinch, of the 
composition, putting the remainder into a piece of 
goat's skin among the hair, and folded it up for 
future use. She had a stroke of dark blue, like 
tattooing, from the upper part of her brow to the 
nose, about half an inch broad, and two similar 
strokes on her temples. The man had several 
cuts on his arms, and smaller ones on his temples, 
and so had the children, which they said was 
•done to cure sickness. The dark colour of these 
'cuts was produced by putting into them ground 
charcoal, when the wounds were green. Had 
any painter, who felt desirous of exhibiting a 
-picture of human wretchedness, taken a drawing 
of this family, it would have afforded a striking 
representation of it to Europeans. But the 
Bushmen seemed unconscious of their condition. 
■ The next fountain being upwards of fifty miles 
distant, we filled all our vessels with water before 
we set off. At three p.m. we continued our jour- 
ney, and after travelling, generally on a plain, till 
one in the morning, we crossed the Reyner Moun- 
tains by a pass, and at four o'clock arrived at 
Steven Fountain, fatigued by the length of the 
stage, which must have been about fifty- two 
miles, as the strong fresh oxen, of Berend's, 
proceeded at the rate of quite four miles an hour. 
