1811. OXEN DISORDERED.— A HOTTENTOT FACULTY. 175 
boors to occasion the strangury, at a certain time of the year, if 
eaten by the oxen; and this appeared confirmed by the fact that 
several of our oxen were at this spot actually taken ill of that disorder. 
It would seem that its acrid milky juice has the quality of inspissating 
the liquor of the stomach. The Hottentots have a practice of 
removing the obstruction, and in most cases succeed in giving 
relief: such fortimately was the case at this time. Whether the 
complaint be caused by this weed alone, or by any other, I could 
not ascertain ; but it is probable that several species of Euphorbia 
have the same deleterious effect, as Thunberg attributes it in like 
manner to the Euphorbia genistdides, a plant which I did not observe 
growing any where hereabouts. * Stones and veins in the earth, 
having outwardly some resemblance to volcanic matter, were noticed 
at this spot. 
As soon as the weather began to clear up, we prepared for 
departing. Standing attentive to all that was going on, and noticing 
the manner in which my men yoked the oxen to the waggon, 
I was surprised to find they all were as well acquainted with the 
name of every individual ox, and knew the place in the team where 
each had been trained to draw, as if they had been used to them for 
several years. Their quickness and memory, in every thing relating 
to cattle, is really astonishing ; of which numberless proofs have 
occurred in the course of these travels. When Maeers and his 
companion were sent into the Bokkeveld to fetch home the oxen, the 
farmer of whom they were bought, having mustered the whole, 
merely repeated their names and places in the team. These he 
correctly retained in his memory, and afterwards again repeated to 
Jan Kok, Philip, and Speelman, who now called each ox by his name 
with the utmost readiness. This faculty, common to Hottentots, and 
to all the African tribes that I visited, shows the high degree of 
* At Pampoen Kraal ihay be found : 
Microloma sagittatum, 
Tetragonia hirsuta, and 
Galaxia ciliata. 
