SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
289 
a preventive agalnft ftiffnefs in the joints, and by the colonifts 
as the beft appUcation for rheumatic complaints. Indeed the 
oil bears a very ftrong refemblance to that called cajapoota, 
which has obtained a high character of being ufeful in the fame 
diforder. The Hottentot name of the plant is kai ; and the nut 
refembles the feed of the tea-flirub. 
The conftitutions of this pigmy race are much ftronger, and 
their lives of longer duration, than thofe of the Hottentots. 
Many inftances of longevity are found among thofe who live 
with the peafantry. In every ficknefs, of what kind foever, it 
is ufual with them to take off the extreme joints of the fingers, 
beginning with the little finger of the left hand as the leaft ufe- 
ful. This operation is performed under the idea that the dif- 
eafe will run out with the effufion of blood. 
It is cuftomary with them to inter their dead, and, like 
the Hottentots, to cover the graves with piles of ftones. Some 
of thefe were fo large, and on graify plains where not a ftone 
was naturally to be found, that the amaffing of them together 
muft have occafioned a very confiderable degree of labor. 
The temper of a Bosjefman is widely different from that of 
a Hottentot who lives in the colony. The latter, for a life of 
indolence, would barter all that he poffefl'ed in the world j a 
ftate of inactivity would be to the former intolerable. The 
powers of the mind, in one, are languid, and difficultly brought 
into a£lion ; in the other, they feem capable of great exertion. 
Their mechanical fkill appeared in their arrows, which were 
p P finifhed 
