SOUTHERN AFRICA. iig 
ventioii to work, the Cape boor would feel no spur to assist 
himself in any thing ; if the surface of the country was not 
covered with sharp pebbles, he would not even make for him- 
self his skin-shoes. The women, as invariably happens in 
societies that are little advanced in civilization, are much 
greater drudges than the men, yet are far from being indus- 
trious ; they make soap and candles, the former to send to 
Cape Town in exchange for tea and sugar, and the latter for 
home-consumption. But all the little trifling things, that a 
state of refinement so sensibly feels the want of, are readily 
dispensed with by the Cape boor. Thongs cut from skins 
serve, on all occasions, as a succedaneum for rope ; and the 
tendons of wild animals divided into fibres are a substitute for 
thread. When I wanted ink, a mixture of equal quantities 
of brown sugar and soot, moistened with a little water, was 
brought to me in lieu of this article, and soot was substituted 
for a wafer. 
To add to the uncleauliness of their huts, the folds or kraals 
in which their cattle remain at nights are immediately front- 
ing the door, and, except in the Sneuwberg, where the total 
want of wood obliges them to burn dung cut out like peat, 
these kraals are never on any occasion cleaned out; so that 
in old established places they form mounds from ten to 
twenty feet high. The lambing season commences before the 
rains faiish ; and it sometimes happens that half a dozen or 
more or these little creatures, that have been lambed over 
night, are found smothered in the wet dung. The same thing 
happens to the young calves ; yet, so indolent and helpless 
is the boor, that rather than yoke his team to his waggon and 
