1811. 
HOTTENTOT BOYS AND GIRLS. 
339 
the birds with brown plumage are males, while those with white are 
females. If, on comparing the South-African with the Egyptian 
bird it should prove to be the same species, the wide range of it, 
from one extremity of Africa to the other, is very remarkable. 
Few insects were at this season to be seen, or that attracted 
particular notice. * Loaded with the vulture, and the other birds 
we had shot, we fell in with a party of boys and girls, bringing 
home bundles of wood which they had been collecting for the 
night's fire. It was, they said, one of their daily employments. We 
walked on to the village together ; and as most of them spoke or 
understood Dutch, we continued in conversation the whole way. 
In this I derived considerable amusement from their ingenuous 
and unartificial mode of expression, coupled with some readiness of 
thought and quickness of answer. But the liveliness which Hot- 
tentots possess in their youth, deserts them in general at an early 
age ; and one feels at first a difficulty in imagining the reason why 
those who take so little heed for the morrow, and whose minds are 
so little disturbed by the cares of getting riches, or of watching over 
them when acquired, should so soon lay aside their youthful playful- 
ness. These remarks, however, must be taken only in a general 
sense, and qualified by frequent exceptions. 
Our young walking companions asked me jokingly, if we were 
taking the vulture home to eat, a thing quite impossible, on account 
of its abominable carrion-like smell ; otherwise, it must be confessed, 
we should have been glad to have made a meal of it ; having taken 
no other food since yesterday, than a small slice of dry bread. And, 
to add to our disappointment in this respect, we found, on return- 
ing to the waggons, that no meat could be purchased in the village, 
and that the hunters were returned empty-handed. 
Some of the small birds I had shot, were eatable, and of these 
I made a supper ; but the Hottentots preferred sleeping away their 
hunger. 
* Two species of Pimelia were found ; one of which is probably the P. inflata of 
Olivier. 
X X 2 
