FIRST JOURNEY. 
behaved very well, only making {igns for tobacco, which I j^J^^tt-^j. 
gave them ; and they in return offered me fome honey which — ' 
outfide it Is bedaubed with an unfluous matter, that grows hard when dry. Both the quivers 
I brought with me, are lined about the aperture with a ferpent's fkin ; and, as I was told, with 
the fkin of the yellow ferpent, which is confidered as the moft venemous of any in that country, 
Befides a dozen of arrows, every quiver contains a flender hone of fand-ftone for whetting the 
iron head upon, and a brurti for laying on the poifon, together with a few wooden fticks, dif- 
fering in thicknefs, but all of the fame length with the arrows. For what ufe they are de- 
figned, I am entirely ignorant. The poifon is taken from feveral different kinds of ferpents, 
the more venomous the better ; whether their arrows are to be employed againfl their foes, or 
are only defigned for fhooting game ; for, as I have obferved before, the Hottentots know very 
well, that taken internally it is quite harmlefs. 
The dwellings of thefe foes to a pafiioral life are generally not more agreeable, than their- 
maxims and manners. Like the wild beafls, bufhes and clifts in rocks by turns ferve them in- 
ftead of houfes ; and fome of them are faid to be fo far worfe than beafls, that their foil has 
1^ been found clofe to their habitations. A great many of them are entirely naked ; but fuch as 
have been able to procure the fkin of any fort of animal, great or fmall, cover their bodies with, 
it from the fhoulders downwards as far as it will reach, wearing it till it falls off their backs in 
rags. As ignorant of agriculture as apes and monkies, like them they are obliged to wander 
about over hills and dales after certain wild roots, berries and plants, (which they eat raw) in 
order to fuflain a life that this miferable food would foon extinguifh arid deflroy, were they ufed 
to better fare. 
Tiaeir table, however, is fometimes compofed of feveral other dlfhes, among which may be 
reckoned the larvae of infects, or thofe kind of caterpillars from which butterflies are generated ; 
and in like manner a fort of white ants, (the termes) grafhoppers, fnakes, and fome fort of fpi- 
ders. With all thefe changes of diet, the Bolhiefman is neverthelefs frequently in want, and 
to fuch a degree, as to wafle almofl to a fhadow. It was with no fmall aflonifiiment, that I 
for the firft time faw in Lange Kloof a lad belonging to this race of men, with his face, arms, 
legs and body fo monftroufly fmall and withered, that I could not have been induced to fuppofe 
but that he had been brought to that fiate by the fever that was epidemic in thofe parts, had I not 
feen him at the fame time run like a lapwing. It required but a few weeks to bring one of thefe 
ftarvelings to a thriving flate, and even to make him fat; their ftomachs being flrong enough to 
digeft the great quantity of food with which they are crammed, as they may rather be faid to 
bolt than eat j it fometimes happens, indeed, that they cannot long retain what they have taken 
in J but this circumftance, it is faid, does not hinder them from beginning again upon a frefli i'core. 
The capture of flaves from among this race of men is by no means a difKcult matter, and is 
effedled in the following manner. Several farmers, that are in want of fervants, join together, 
and take a journey to that part of the country where the Bofhiefmen live. They themfelves, as 
well as their Lego- Hottentots, or elfe fuch Bofliiefmen as have been cauglit fome time before, 
^d have been trained up to fidelity in their fervice, endeavour to fpy out where the wild Bofliief- 
men 
