to descend, and the darkness of evening fell upon us before we
reached the house. The air became chilly, owing to the rain which
had fallen during the day: the thermometer-was no higher than 61°
(12’8 Reaum.; 16T1 Centig.)
13th. The next morning we were attended by Mr. Kiister, one
of the brethren, who conducted us along the valley, through the
maze of gardens and fruit-trees, to exhibit the progress which their
Hottentots had made in horticulture and domestic order. Warmed
with unaffected zeal in the cause in which he was engaged, he
displayed their success with a satisfaction and pleasure, in which we
fully participated. The huts at Genadendal, unlike those of genuine
Hottentot construction, which have an hemispherical shape, and are
covered with mats, are merely a rude imitation of the quadrangular
buildings of the colonists. Those which we saw, were generally
from ten to fifteen feet long, and from eight to ten wide, having an
earthen floor, and walls white-washed on their inside, composed
of rough unhewn posts, filled up between with reeds and rushes
plastered with mud, and the whole covered with a roof of thatch.
The eaves being in general not higher from the ground than four or
six feet, the doors could not be entered without stooping. A small
unglazed window admitted light; but there was neither chimney;
nor any other opening in the roof, by which the smoke might
escape. *
Some of the huts exhibited superior workmanship, being divided
by a partition-wall into two rooms, and were exceedingly
neat and clean. A table, two or three chairs, and a box, all manufactured
by the Hottentots themselves, made up the principal part
of the furniture. A few families, who had been long established
here, lived in houses of a much better description, built of square
sawn beams, and walls partly of bricks and partly of mud hardened
in the sun. One house, situated in a line of huts called Molen-straat
* The Vignette at the en<J of this chapter is a view of a part of the valley of Genadendal,
showing the ordinary huts of the Hottentots, surrounded by plantations of peach-
trees. The mountain there seen is a part of Z'tsodrteberg.
(Mill-street), contained a small hand-mill, where three Hottentots
were busily employed in grinding their corn.
This mill was remarkable for its very simple construction: the
essential parts of its mechanism were merely two horizontal stones,
of two feet in diameter, and three handles. The under-stone was
fixed, about three feet from the ground, in a circular frame or box of
wood, elevated above it high enough to prevent the upper stone,
when in motion, from flying off. The inner surface of each stone
was channelled in the same manner as we observe in the mill-stones
in England; while the upper one was perforated by a funnel-shaped
hole of the form of an inverted cone, into which the corn, in small
quantities, was continually thrown by hand. In the upper surface of
the moving stone was fixed a stout cylindric pin of iron. The
handle was a horizontal stick about four feet long, one end of which
was fastened by a piece of raw hide to the iroij p in ; while the other
was supported by a long rope attached to the rafters 6f the roof.
In the same manner, two other handles were fixed to the pin, one
above the other, and were similarly supported by ropes suspended
from different parts of the roof. By alternately pushing forward
and pulling back these handles, the upper stone was made to turn
round with any desired degree of velocity, and at the same time
discharged the flour by a spout in the side of the circular box. The
greatest inconvenience of such' a mill consists in its having no
means for regulating the degree of fineness or coarseness of the
meal; but for this country, where regular millwrights are seldom
to be found, it possesses a most important advantage, in being so
easy of construction, that every farmer may make one for himself.
It is, in fact, often to be met with in the houses of the boors, having,
most probably, been by them originally introduced into this colony.
As we passed along through their little gardens, under the
cool shade of peach-trees, the Hottentots at work touched their
hats, and, in a good-natured, respectful manner, accosted each of us
with “ Dag, Mynheer!” meaning “ Good day, Sir!** The women,
as we walked by the door of their huts, courtesied with the same
salutation; while the boys and girls, half-hidden behind them,
Q