410 
TRAVELS, &c. 
year had hitherto prevented them from entering. In this divl- 
fion there is no fcarcity of water in fprings or wells, but it is 
imiverfally, and fo ftrongly, impregnated with fait, as not only to 
be difagreeable, but almoft impofTible to be taken by thofe who 
have not been long accuftomed to it. By fuch it is preferred to 
the pureft water; this being accounted infipid and taftelefs. An 
old man in the Bokkeveld, who, from his infancy till a few 
years paft, had lived in Zwartland, never miffed an opportunity 
of fending thither a few bottles to be filled with the briny water 
for his own particular ufe ; the pure ftream of the mountain, as 
he afferted, not being able to quench his thirft. Similar in- 
ftances of habit, or of fancy, appear in ancient hiftory. Some of 
the princeffes of the Ptolemy family would drink no other water 
but that of the Nile, though it is fometimes fo ftrongly impreg- 
nated with nitrous and other fafts, as to poffefs a purgative 
quality ; and fuperftition directed the fame water to be carried 
from Egypt into Syria and Greece, for the fole purpofe of fprirtk- 
ling in the temple of Ifis. 
Leaving Zwartland, and its faline fprings to thofe who could 
relifh them, I directed my route acrofs the Tiger berg to the 
Cape, where I arrived on the fecond of June, without having 
experienced any of thofe inconveniences which the feafon of the 
year feemed to threaten. 
