292 
A NATIVE WOMAN AND CHILD. 
8, 9 Sept. 
to it from the day of its birth. While her head was turned aside to 
talk to her companions, I drew a sketch of her unperceived. * 
From the concurrent assertions of all the Hottentots, I now 
learnt the singular fact, that the teeth of the Bushmen do not, in the 
course of time, decay, as those of most other nations do ; but be- 
come, in old age, quite ground down by use, in the same manner as 
those of sheep. I have frequently, in corroboration of this, noticed 
that the front teeth of old people had the appearance of being worn 
down to mere stumps ; but 1 confess I never had an opportunity of 
confirming it by a closer examination, and therefore leave the as- 
sertion as I found it. 
We plentifully feasted these poor creatures, and, I believe, made 
them happier than they had been for a long while. Through an 
interpreter, they asked me my name, and expressed, in artless terms, 
how much pleasure I had given them by so bountiful a present 
of tobacco. Desirous of transfusing into the minds of others those 
powerful feelings of interest which I myself experienced on behold- 
ing and conversing with this little family of Bushmen, heightened by 
the consideration that I now stood amongst them on their own soil, 
I never, more than at this moment, longed to possess that command 
of language, and that talent of descriptive representation, which 
might enable me to impart all those peculiar sensations with which 
my first interview with this singular nation, inspired me. 
When we departed from Lions' Fountain, the whole of this 
party left us, excepting three, whom we prevailed upon, by a pro- 
mise of some sheep and tobacco, to accompany us, for the purpose 
of guiding us from one spring to another, till we reached the Great 
* An engraving from this drawing is given at the end of the chapter. The meagre 
proportions there observed are such as are common to these people. A description of 
the Hottentot dress in general, will be found in Chapter XVI., under the date of the 
28th of October. It will suffice, at present, to explain, that in this figure it is entirely of 
leather, and that the fore-kaross or apron, consists of a great number of thin strips of 
leather, resembling cords ; or, to speak more exactly, of two or three leathern aprons cut 
completely into strips, excepting only the upper edge, by which it is tied round the waist. 
