March.] OUR RESIDENCE AT LATTAKOO. 85 
joy on account of the late fertilizing and refresh- 
ing rains. About fifteen men were dancing 
in a circle, each holding and blowing a reed. 
They leaped like a frog, round and round the 
cir-cle, keeping time. The king directed the 
dance, leaping and playing upon a reed, exactly 
like the others, from whom he could only be dis- 
tinguished by a long rod which he carried, reaching 
considerably higher than his head. Peekloo, his 
eldest son, was the only young person engaged in 
the dance. Many women rushed forward from 
the crowd of spectators, and leaped fantastically 
around the dancers, singing and clapping their 
hands. Being observed to take out my snuff- 
box, I was instantly surrounded by women and 
girls, sturdily calling out for snuff, and as many 
as could thrusting their fingers into the box. 
The king noticing their rudeness, ordered his son 
from the dance to beat them off, which he could 
not accomplish without rough treatment, nor till 
the box had been emptied of its contents. 
The Missif)naries, with die few Hottentots at- 
tached to the mission, have dug a canal from a 
distance of three miles above the town, by means 
of which the whole water of the Krooman is led 
into their extensive fields and gardens. I went to 
view this useful work after breakfast, and found 
extensive fields of Caffre corn, belonging to the 
natives on both sides of the canal. Similar culti- 
