356 
RELIGIOUS DUTIES OF 
Oct. 
whitewashed with a kind of clay, which is found near the river, they 
looked tolerably clean ; but the rafters and thatch constituted the 
only ceiling. The eaves were about six feet from the ground. The 
upright posts, the beams and rafters, were either of Acacia or Willow, 
and tied together with strips of Acacia-bark. The space within the 
building was a long parallelogram, which, when quite filled, might 
perhaps contain a congregation of three hundred persons, in the way 
in which the Hottentots squat on the ground; for there were no 
seats, excepting about a dozen, which some of the more civilized 
of the auditors had provided themselves with. On one of the longer 
sides the door-way was placed, and, opposite to it, a pulpit, raised a 
step above the floor. 
On Sundays the service commenced at nine in the morning, 
and again at four in the afternoon : at each time a bell gave the 
inhabitants a half-hour's notice, and also tolled when the prayers 
began. This notice was the more necessary, as some of the huts 
were scattered a mile from the church ; and, from the openness of 
the situation, the bell could be heard at a great distance. A few 
people also attend from the nearest outposts ; and, occasionally, a 
marriage takes place ; which was the case at this time. 
The church was this day, as usual, well filled ; and the congre- 
gation behaved with great decorum, and, to appearance, listened 
with attention. In hot weather, the smell of their greasy bodies, and 
of so many sheepskin karosses, heightened by Buku (Bookoo) and 
other scents, is too strong for a nose unaccustomed to it ; and I have 
often suffered the greatest uneasiness by enduring it till the end 
of the service : frequently, in such weather, I was compelled to 
absent myself on that account. My object in attending their Sabbath 
meetings, was not my own edification ; it was, (being an European, 
whom many of these poor creatures look up to as knowing what is 
right,) that I might not, by my example, sanction a neglect of divine 
worship, but rather, by my presence, encourage them, as far as I 
could have any influence, to listen to, and respect, their teachers. I 
cannot say that the scope and bearing of the doctrine of these 
teachers, were altogether such as I myself should have chosen, had 
