These huts were constructed exactly in the manner already
described*; and differed only in the greater size of their door-way
or opening. Not one of these was high enough to admit even a Bushman
to stand upright within it ; nor was that of their captain, or chief,
in any respect different from the others. The inside formed but one
apartment, where all the family slept; their bed being nothing more
than a skin spread upon the ground, and on which they lay themselves
down, generally coiled up in their karosses like a bundle of
clothes; so that neither head nor legs can be distinguished. But it
is not every man who has the good-fortune to own a cloak long
enough for this purpose. The area comprised within the kraal,
or ring of houses, is more or less extensive in proportion to the
number of cattle belonging to the community, or to the number of
dwellings.
I saw no more than five or six oxen, and as many sheep; but
of goats they possessed at least a hundred. Before one of the huts
I saw eight kids, but did not observe that they were tied by one foot
to a peg fixed in the ground, till the sight of my umbrella alarmed
them, and caused the animals to break loose. Their owners, who
were within the hut, looked up at me with a goodnatured smile, as
they rose to drive the kids back, and make them fast again.
The dogs most common among the Bushmen, are a small species
entirely white, with erect pointed ears: and as this sort was not
noticed in the Colony, it is probably a breed which may have been
long in the possession of the native tribes. (See the fourth plate).
On the head of one man I remarked an unusually large fur cap.
It was made of spring-buck skin, of a shape extending far behind
the head, and intended to have as much as possible the appearance
of that animal’s back. This was for the purpose of deceiving the
game, and of enabling the wearer, as he creeps along between the
bushes, to approach the animal within reach of his arrow. It is
called a be-creeping cop (Bekruip-muts) ; and is only worn when in
pursuit of game.
* In the first volume, at page 825; and represented in the seventh plate.
Many carried constantly in their hand a jackal’s tail, which they
frequently drew across their eyes, for the purpose, as I was told, of
improving their sight, agreeably to their belief that it possesses a virtue
of that kind: but I think the benefit which it does them,"by wiping
away the dust, is a sufficient reason for the practice.
The reticule is with the Bushmen, as with us, a fashionable and
useful appendage in their morning walks, and differs from ours only
by its want of cleanliness and elegance, and in being called a bulb-bag
(uyentje-zak). No Bushman goes abroad to collect roots, without a
bag of this kind. But it is, in most instances, worn constantly, and
is with them what pockets are with us. It is generally suspended
at their side by a leathern strap passing over the opposite shoulder,
and is more commonly ornamented with a great number of strings
similar, though shorter, to those which form the fore-kaross, or front
apron of the women. *
I noticed many persons, both men and women, who had every
appearance of great age. Their skin, which resembled old leather,
hung about them in loose wrinkles ; and the dirt with which they
were covered, together with their clotted hair, proved how disgusting
human beings may render themselves by neglect of personal cleanliness.
Whether they were really so old as I thought them to be,
was a question which they themselves could not have determined,
since a nation who only live from day to day, and look no farther
forward than from one meal to the next, can have no inducement for
buTtliening their memory with accounts of years that have passed,
or of days that are behind them. I have had occasion before f to
remark how early in life they begin to assume the looks of age; and
this consideration renders it still more difficult to guess how old a
Bushman may be. Yet it should not therefore be concluded that
their lives are, on the average, shorter than the natural term, or that
many examples of longevity may not exist among them.
* A more particular description of the Hottentot dress, between which and that of
the Bushmen there is scarcely any difference, has been given at page 395 to 398. of the
first volume; and may now be referred to.
•}• At page 415. of the first volume.