314 Mr. masson’s Botanical travels. 
exceeding two feet in height. The air is very fharp, and 
in winter they have froft and fnow for feveral months, 
which obliges the Boors to remove, with all their flocks 
and herds, down to the Garro, or lower defarts, where 
they fpend the winter; and at that time have plenty 
of frefh water, and all the fhrubs green, which afford 
food for their cattle. They remove down in the begin- 
ning of May, when they have fown their corn, and re- 
turn about the latter end of October, when the low coun- 
try becomes parched, and the water turns fait, or is en- 
tirely dried up. All the game and ferocious animals ob- 
ferve the fame removes. The ancient inhabitants of 
this country, called by the Dutch Bofchmenfchen, are a 
favage people and very thievifh * often carrying off 700 
fheep at a time, and killing their fhepherds. They ufe 
bows and arrows, and poifon the arrows with the venom 
of ferpents mixed with the juice of a fpecies of euphor- 
bia r, which we had no opportunity of feeing. Thefe 
Hottentots have neither flocks or herds, nor any fixed 
habitation, nor even fkins to cover them; but live in the 
cavities of rocks, like baboons. Their common food is 
roots of plants, many of which we have not been able to 
difcover. They eat fnakes, lizards, fcorpions, and all 
kind of reptiles. There is a caterpillar which pro- 
duces a very large moth, and is found commonly on the 
mimoja nilotica . Thefe are found in great plenty, often 
flrippingthe trees of all their leaves, and of them the Hot- 
tentots make many a delicious meal. They alfo eat the 
1 eggs 
