1811. 
LANGUAGE OF THE BUSHMEN. 
407 
the required shape, a common knife was the only tool employed to 
smooth and complete the outside ; and another knife, having its top 
bent laterally into a semi-circular hook, was used with great dexterity 
and neatness to hollow out the inside. As soon as this was done, the 
whole was thoroughly smeared with fat, to prevent it splitting from 
the heat and dryness of the weather. The bowls are of various sizes, 
but most frequently from twelve to eighteen inches across, shallow 
and mostly oval. The jug, or jar, which they call a bambus, is made 
in the form of a short cylinder, having the mouth or neck contracted 
generally to about two-thirds. Their most usual capacity is about a 
gallon, but they are made of all sizes, from a pint to five gallons. 
Some of our party built themselves huts of green boughs, co- 
vered with grass and rushes ; and a large and safe enclosure for 
the cattle was made with the thorny branches of Acacia, which, for 
this purpose, are preferable to every other fence ; and, beset in every 
direction with long sharp thorns, equally well prevent their escape, 
and keep out invaders, whether men or beasts of prey. 
The intelligence of our arrival was, by means of their spies, 
quickly spread among the natives ; and fourteen Bushmen, from a 
kraal several miles beyond the other side of the river, paid us a 
visit early this morning. They were nearly all of a mixed race of 
Bushman, Kora, and Bichuana descent. Their language was quite 
different from that of the inhabitants of the district of the Karree 
mountains ; and I was assured that the variety of language amongst 
the Bushman race is so great, that neighbouring kraals often speak 
dialects so different as not to be understood without difficulty. I 
cannot, however, assert this from my own knowledge ; for depend- 
ing on Hottentot interpreters, I am rather inclined to believe 
that the degree of variation in the Bushman language is somewhat 
exaggerated by them. Yet, as I have found the same remark made 
by every Hottentot whom I have questioned on the subject, I have 
no doubt that such is the fact, although not perhaps to so extraor- 
dinary a degree as they represent. The language of these men was 
so abundant in claps, that it seemed as if almost every word was 
accompanied by this strange noise; and which oft times occurred 
