air-bubble with it, he had practised with great success on the credulity and ignorance of the Dutch farmers, and had obtained from them, by this and other means, a pair of horses, and several hundred rix-dollars of paper-money. Lighting their pipes at the sun by means of his glass, and the persuasion that the air-bubble within it was a drop of water that possessed the sympathetic quality of always turning towards its kindred element, had such an irresistible effect on the rude minds of the African boors, that the Irishman, like a true quack, appreciated his consequence so highly, that he never deigned to pay a visit to any farmer, in order to examine the state of his water, without a previous fee. Observing me laugh at the credulity of the people gaping at his mountebank tricks, he took occasion to speak to me apart, begging, for God's sake, I would not detect the imposture, as he was now in such good practice that he was able to keep an assistant. Surprize ceases at the credulity of men born and educated in the wilds of Africa, on reflecting to what extent the impostors of Europe have succeeded, in living upon the folly of those who have been weak enough to listen to them."

6

After travelling for some time northward, Mr. Barrow approached the skirts of the colony, when it became necessary to increase his company, as a protection against the Bosjesmans. Having passed the Karroo desert he entered the Namaaqua country, and, after proceeding some distance, encamped at the house of a Dutch peasant, situated at the entrance of a narrow defile between two ranges of mountains. The figure that presented itself,' says he, at the door, truly represented a being of a different country from that which we had left behind. It was a tall old man, with a thin sallow visage, and a beard of dingy black, that extending to the eyes where it met the straggling hair of the forehead, obscured the face like a vizor. Never was a finer figure for the inhabitant of a black tower or enchanted castle, in the page of romance. * Not accustomed to receive strangers, he seemed, on our arrival, to be somewhat agitated. In one corner of the chimney of his hovel, which consisted of one apartment, sat an old Hottentot woman, over whose head had passed at least' a

a

century of years. To her natural sallow complexion was superadded no small quantity of soot, so that she was at least as black as her bearded master. A female slave next made her appearance, of a piece with the two former. The faggot presently crackled on the hearth; a quarter of a sheep was laid on the coals to broil; and the repast was speedily served up on the lid of an old chest, for want of a table, and covered with the remnant of the same piece of cloth worn as a petticoat by the female slave, which, it seemed not unlikely, had also once been employed in the same sort of service.

i

It turned out in conversation, that the old gentleman had long resided in this sequestered spot far removed from all society; without wife or child, relation or friend, or any human being to converse with or confide in, except the old Hottentot and the slave, who were his only inmates, and a tribe of Hottentots in straw huts without. With the appearance of wretchedness and extreme poverty, he possessed immense herds of sheep and cattle, and had several large sums of money placed out at interest. He was literally what the world has properly called a miser. In justice, however, to the old man, he was one of the civilest creatures imaginable. On our return we we were much indebted to him for the assistance of his cattle, which he very obligingly sent forward to fall in with our wag, gons on the midst of the Karroo desert.

It is singular enough, that a brother and sister of this man, both old, and both unmarried, should each have their habitations in separate and distant corners of these mountains, and live, like him, entirely in the society of Hottentots; they are nearly related to one of the richest men in the Cape.'

6

Proceeding to the northward our traveller crossed a chain of mountains, called the Khamies berg. The plains between this and the Orange river are now desolate and uninhabited. • All those numerous tribes of Namaaquas,' says Mr. Barrow, possessed of vast herds of cattle, are, in the course of less than a century, dwindled away to four hordes, which are not yery numerous, and in a great measure are subservient to the Dutch peasantry, who dwell among them. The latter, who have seized upon the choicest part of their country, allow them

to erect their huts in the neighbourhood of their farms, on condition of their furnishing a certain number of people to protect their cattle against the attacks of Bosjesmans, or wild beasts of prey. A dozen years more, and probably a shorter period, will see the remains of the Namaaqua nation in a state of entire servitude. Such are the effects of an encroaching peasantry, sanctioned by the low policy of a government that could descend to employ agents to effect the purchase of whole herds of cattle for a cask of brandy!

Though the Namaaqua Hottentots vary but very little in their persons from the other tribes of this nation, their lan guage is widely different. It is obviously, however, of the same nature, and abounds with the clapping of the tongue peculiar to the Hottentot. They are of a taller stature in general than the eastern tribes, and less robust. Some of the women were very elegant figures, and possessed a considerable share of vivacity and activity; and they had the same conformation of certain parts of the body as the Bosjesmans women, and other Hottentots; in a less degree, however, than is usual in the former, and more so than in those of the latter.

The huts of the Namaaqua differ very materially from those erected by the Hottentots of the colony, or by the Bos jesmans, or by the Kaffers. They are perfect hemispheres, covered with matting made of sedges; and the frame-work, or skeletons, are semicircular sticks, half of them diminishing from the centre or upper part, and the other half crossing these at right angles; forming thus a true representation of the paral lels of latitude and meridians on an artificial globe. They are in general from 10 to 12 feet in diameter; and so commodious, that many of the peasantry of the Khamies berg have adopted them.

An old Namaaqua Hottentot woman is a figure that the most serious could not behold without laughter, and an old Dutch woman of this part of the country without pity, the first being remarkable for the prominences of the body, the latter from its want of points and uninterrupted rotundity. The breasts of the former are disgustingly large and pendant; the usual way of giving suck, when the child is carried on the

back, is by throwing the breast over the shoulder. In this formation of their persons, they agree with the Latin satirist's description of Ethiopian women on the borders of Egypt:

In Meroe crasso, majorem infante mamillam.

In the women of ancient Egypt, enormous protuberances of the body were very common, and have been attempted to be accounted for, by various authors, from a variety of causes. Though one of these may exist in the impurities of the water, yet the essential difference in the effect produced on a Hottentot and Dutch woman, shews different predispositions to exist inherent in the persons of each.

A few days before our arrival at the foot of the mountain, a lion had occasioned some little stir in the country, which bad not yet entirely subsided. A Hottentot belonging to one of the farmers had endeavoured for some time, in vain, to drive his master's cattle into a pool of water enclosed between two ridges of rock, when at length he espied a huge lion couching in the midst of the pool; terrified at the unexpected sight of such a beast, that seemed to have his eyes fixed upon him, he instantly took to his heels, leaving the cattle to shift for themselves. In doing this he had presence of mind enough to run through the herd, concluding that if the lion should pursue, he might take up with the first beast that presented itself. In this, however, he was mistaken. The lion broke through the herd, making directly after the Hottentot, who, on turning round, and perceiving that the monster had singled him out for a meal, breathless and half dead with terror, scrambled up one of the tree aloes, in the trunk of which had luckily been cut out a few steps, the more readily to come at some bird's nests that the branches contained. At the same moment the Hon made a spring at him, but, missing his aim, fell upon the ground. In surly silence he walked round the tree, casting every now and then a dreadful look towards the poor Hottentot, who had crept behind some finches' nests that happened to have been built in the tree.

Having remained silent and motionless, for a length of time, he ventured to peep over the side of the nest, hoping

that the lion had taken his departure; when, to his great ter ror and astonishment, his eye met those of the animal, to use his own expression, "flashing fire at him." In short, the lion laid himself down at the foot of the tree, and stirred not from the place for four-and-twenty hours. He then returned to the spring to quench his thirst, and, in the mean time, the Hottentot descended the tree, and scampered to his home which was not more than a mile distant, as fast as his feet could carry him. The perseverence of the lion was such, that it appeared afterwards he had returned to the tree, and from thence had hunted the Hottentot by the scent within 300 paces of the house.

2

It seems to be a fact well established, that the lion prefers the flesh of a Hottentot to that of any other creature. He has frequently been singled out from a party of Dutch. The lat ter being disguised in clothing, and the former going generally naked, may perhaps account for it. The horse, next to the Hottentot, seems to be his favourite food; but, on the sheep, perhaps on account of his woolly covering, which he is too indolent to uncase, he seldom deigns to fix his paw.

In our descent of the mountain, we were driven to seek shelter from the violence of the rain in a mixed horde of Bastaards and Namaaquas. The chief was of the former descrip tion. In his younger days he had been a great lover of the chace, and his matted hut within still displayed a variety of the skins of animals that had fallen before his piece. He boasted that, in one excursion, he had killed seven camelopar+ dales and three white rhinoceroses. The latter is not uncom mon on the skirts of the colony behind, the Hantam mountain, and seems to be a variety only of the African two-horned rhinoceros. These people seemed to live very happily together, They had horses, and cattle, and sheep, and gardens of no inconsiderable extent, well stocked with pumpkins, onions, and tobacco.

'We met also, at this kraal, one of the nation above mentioned under the name of Damaras. From his appearance I took him to be a Kaffer, and he was unquestionably of that race of people. He represented the Damaras as a very poor