398 TRAVELS IN 
The three tribes of KafFers above-mentioned have each a 
different language, though they are all of the fame nature, and 
have evidently been derived from the fame fource. This muft 
be the cafe among every people who want a written character, 
efpecially when they become divided into tribes, and ceafe to 
communicate with each other. The different families of Hotten- 
tots all fpeak a different language, which, however, is very 
obvioufly perceived to have been derived from one common 
origin. 
Having dried our clothes, we took leave of the kraal, and 
continued our deicent of the mountain. It was night before we 
gained the plain, where we once more enjoyed a clear fky and 
a brilliant moon. The following morning the thermometer was 
down to the freezing point, and the whole furface of the country 
was covered with a hoar froft. 
From this place we made the befl of our way to the Bokke- 
veld, returning nearly by the fame route that had brought us to 
it. At the edge of the defert the Bosjefmans' captain paid us a 
fecond vifit, with the people of his kraal, and a whole firing 
of Namaaqua Hottentots, generally women, whofe hufbands 
and children were in the fervice of the Dutch farmers. One of 
thefe appeared to be the oldeft woman I had ever beheld. 
Much more than a century of years had certainly paffed over 
her head. She produced her eldeft daughter, who headed five 
generations. On being afked if her memory could carry her 
back to the time when the Chriftians firft came among them, 
ihe replied, with a fhake of the head, that Ihe had very ftrong 
reafons 
