here produced between an European and a Hottentot have
ftrong curling hair, and are, except in color, very like the
Kaffers,
So different are the opinions and the feelings of different
nations concerning religion, and fo difficult do the mod civil-
ized people find it to exprefs their notions clearly and confift-
ently o f the “ unknown God,” that little fatisfaftory information
can be collefted on thofe points without a very familiar
and extenfive knowledge of the language o f the people among
whom the inquiry is made, which was far from being the cafe
in the prefent inftance, The king being aiked i f they had any
belief in a fupernatural power, and, i f fo, what were their notions
concerning it? replied, that they believed in the exiftence
o f fome invifible power that fometimes brought good and (bate-
times evil upon them ; it was this power that caufed men to die
fuddenly, or before they arrived at years of maturity; that
raifed the wind, and made thunder and lightning to frighten,
and fometimes, kill them ; that led the fun acrnfs the world in
the day, and the moon by night ; and that made all thofe things
which they could not underftand nor imitate. I then ihewed
him my watch; and from his great furprife it was clear he had
never feen one before. On examining attentively the movements,
and obferving that the motion was continued in his
own hands, he looked at the furrounding fpeftators, and pronounced
the word feegas, which was echoed back with a nod
o f the head from the whole crowd. Concerning this word the
Hottentot interpreter could get no other information than that
it was fome influence o f the dead over the living in mitigating
and
and direfting the aft ions o f the latter. He called it a ghoft or
fpirit, and faid it was the Kaffer way o f fwearing. It appeared
that if a Kaffer fwore by a deeeafed relation, his oath was con-
fidered as inviolable. A promife was always held facred when
apiece o f metal was broken between thè parties ; a praftice not
unlike the breaking of a fixpence between two parting lovers,
ftill kept up in fome country places of England. That thefe
people have not bewildered their imaginations fo far with me-
taphyfical ideas of the immortality of the font,’ as the more
civilized part o f mankind have given into, and that their notions
have been little direfted towards a future fiate of exiftence,
was clear from his replies to various queftions put to him
on that fubjeft. As little information was likely to be gained
on fueh abftrufe points through the medium o f a Hottentot
interpreter, the converfation was turned to other fubjefts lefs
embarrafling, and fueh as came more immediately before the
fen&s.
Their fkitl in mufic is not above the level of that of the Hottentots.
They have is* faft no other inftruments except the
two in ufe among the latter, and a finali whiftle made of the
bone o f fome animal, and ufed fometimes for giving orders to
their cattle when at a difiance. They feldbm1 attempt to fing
or to dance; and their performances of both are miferably bad.
A Kaffer woman is only ferious when fhe dances, and at fuch
times her eyes are conftantly fixed on the ground, and her
whole body feems to be thrown into convulfive motions.
A greater