181L HOTTENTOT'S HUT. — TWILIGHT. —PEPPERMINT. 493 
wild romantic appearance. Remarkably sheltered and warm, it seems 
especially adapted for a fruit-garden, and undoubtedly would pro- 
duce abundance of figs and peaches. 
Looking into the huts, I found their inhabitants, with very few 
exceptions, stretched on the ground, asleep ; for which the great 
heat of the day was almost an excuse. In a Hottentot hut, there is 
no separate sleeping place for the different members of the family ; 
all are huddled together, each rolled up in his kaross. 
\5th. At this time the twilight, in the absence of the moon, 
gave light enough for reading till fifty minutes after the sun had 
gone down ; but travelling could not safely be continued longer than 
an hour after sun-set. These facts were ascertained practically by 
repeated observations. 
\1th. I discovered in the mead a species of pepjjei'inint, grow- 
ing wild, and pointing it out to the missionaries, recommended a 
trial of distilling it. Some sheets of tin, which I brought from the 
Cape, afforded the means of making a still-head, which could be 
adapted to a common boiling pot, and Mr. Anderson, who un- 
derstood something of this kind of work, succeeded in making one 
which answered the purpose. The result of our experiment created 
universal satisfaction, as some excellent spirit of peppermint was 
obtained. In this satisfaction, I mean to include the Hottentots ; 
for those who attended the fire at the still, were delighted to find 
that a liquor of a strong and spirituous taste might be so easily 
made. Whenever they supposed themselves unobserved, they 
caught into their hands the spirit as it dropped, and sipped and 
tasted over again, highly approving the flavour, and much pleased at 
the discovery. And indeed it was surprising, that with so clumsy 
an apparatus, the process should succeed so well ; a reed, about a 
yard long, constantly moistened on the outside with wet cloths? 
performed the office of a refrigeratory ; and, with the thermometer 
standing at 90°, the condensation of the steam could never have 
been effected, had not the evaporation from the cloths been propor- 
tionally quick to produce a sufficient chill. 
18/^, A Hottentot, as I was informed, had just arrived from 
