1811. 
DRESS OF HOTTENTOT WOMEN. 
395 
several sketches of the scenery, I was anxious to quit a station where 
the fear of being surrounded by the inundation, if the river should rise 
but a yard higher, prevented me from feeling quite at ease. I there- 
fore resolved on proceeding to the Maap; and in consequence, about 
the middle of the day, all the party were again in motion. The 
waggons drove off, one by one, over the sandy hillocks, and between 
the clumps of trees, till they gained the higher ground, beyond all 
marks of former inundations ; where they halted a few minutes to 
give time for all the people to collect themselves together. We then 
kept a course as near to the river, as the ravines and uneven ground 
would permit. - 
The elder women took their seat in the waggons, but the young 
rode on oxen ; and a group of these Hottentot girls trotting on before 
. formed a sight as curious and picturesque, as it was novel. They sat 
astride, and managed the bulky animal with perfect ease and fearless- 
ness. Their heads were neatly bound round with a cotton, or 
leathern, handkerchief, and they wore shoes made of the hide of 
wild animals, but the rest of their body was quite uncovered, 
except by a bundle of small greasy leathern aprons which, drawn 
under them, served to render the bony backs of the oxen a less 
uneasy seat. 
These aprons, which they distinguish into fore-kaross and hind- 
kaross, and which are tied just over the hips, are their only per- 
manent clothing : for the large kaross, or cloak, is only worn, or 
thrown off, agreeably to the weather or the fancy of the wearer. The 
fore-kaross is much the smaller, and seldom reaches below the knees : 
it consists simply of two or three little aprons cut into narrow strips 
or thongs ; and which by constant wear assume the appearance of a 
a bundle of strings. No other kind of covering could less impede 
the motion of walking, than one of such a make. These strings are 
often profusely ornamented with beads of all colors ; and frequently 
an ostrich-shell girdle of many folds, hangs loosely round the waist. 
The hind-kaross is a single, or sometimes a double, apron, much wider 
and longer, than the other, and not divided. This is often made so 
long as nearly to reach the ground ; though, generally, it does not 
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