SOUTHERN AFRICA. 109 
were ere£led in various pans of Europe, though they very pro- 
bably might have proceeded, in a more remote antiquity, from 
the fame origin, which was that of preventing the wolves, or 
jackals, or other ravenous beafts, from tearing up and mangling 
the dead carcafe. The progreffive refinement of fociety con- 
verted, at length, the rude heap of ftones, originating in necef- 
fity, into the fculptured marble, the ufelefs flatterer of vanity. 
Though the Poort may be confidered as the entrance into 
Camdeboo, the firft habitation is twelve miles beyond it, and 
the fecond ten miles beyond the firft. No others appeared 
either to the right or to the left, and the furface of the country 
was juft as barren and naked as any part of the Karroo. The 
third farm-houfe we pafTed was fifteen or fixteen miles beyond 
the fecond ; and no other occurred between this and the 
Drofty, or the refidence of the landroft, which was about ten 
miles farther. It was late in the evening of the thirtieth be- 
fore we arrived at this village, at the entrance of which the 
landroft was received by a body of farmers on horfeback, who 
welcomed him by a difcharge of feveral platoons of mufquetry. 
