their bed, in which they feemed to have lain coiled round in
the manner of fome quadrupeds. It appeared that it was
cuftomary for the elderly men to have two wives, one old and
paft child-bearing, and the other young; that no degree of
confanguinity prevented a matrimonial connexion, except between
brothers and fillers, parents and children. One of thefe
miferable huts ferved for a whole family. The population of
the horde was calculated to amount to about a hundred and
fifty perfons. They poflefled no fort of animals except dogs,
which, unlike thofe of the Kaffers, were remarkably fat. They
appeared to be of a fmall cur-kind, with long-pointed heads
not unlike that of the common jackal. The high condition in
which theie creatures were found feemed very difficult to be
accounted for. They have neither milk nor animal food to eat.
The only viands we found in the huts were a few fmall bulbous
roots, the eggs or larva: of white ants, and the dried larvse
of locufts. The peafantry fay that the dogs o f Bosjefmans
exift almod wholly upon the laft article, the great plenty of
which, in the prefent year, may account for the fatnefs of thefe
animals.
The men were entirely naked, and moll of the women
nearly fo. Their only covering was a belt of fpringbok’s ikin,
with the part that was intended to hang before cut into long
threads like thofe before mentioned to be worn by fome of the
Hottentot women; but the filaments were fo fmall and thin
that they anfwered no fort of ufe as a covering; nor indeed
did the females, either old or young, feem to feel any fenfe of
lhame in appearing before us naked. Whether in the confufion
fufion and hurry they had fcrambled among the rocks before
they had time to adjud this their only drefs, or whether they
were indifferent about concealing any particular part of their
bodies, their aprons happened to be very carelefsly put on.
The fringed part of fome was hanging behind j of others, on
the exterior part of the thigh ; and fome had fallen down as
low as the knee. Yet they were not entirely without fome
notions of finery. A few had caps made o f the Ikins of affes,
in form not unlike helmets; and bits of copper, or Ihells, or
beads, were hanging in the neck, fufpended from their little
curling tufts of hair. All the men had the cartilege of the nofe
bored, through which they wore a piece of wood or a porcupine’s
quilL
Whether confidered as to their perfons, turn o f mind, or
way of life, the Bosjefmans are certainly a moft extraordinary
race of people. In their perfons they are extremely diminutive.
The tailed of the men meafured only four feet nine
inches, and the tailed woman four feet four inches. About
four feet fix inches is faid to be the middle fize of the men,
and four feet that of the women. One of thefe that had feve-
ral children meafured only three feet nine inches. Their
color, their hair, and the general turn of their features, evidently
denote a common origin with the Hottentots, though
the latter, in point of perfonal appearance, has the advantage
by many degrees. The Bosjefmans, indeed, are amongd the
uglied of all human beings. The flat nofe, high cheek-bones,
prominent chin, and concave vifage, partake much of the apeifh
chara&er, which their keen eye, always in motion, tends not