panions. They have little of that kind of art or cunning that'
favages generally poflefs. I f accufed of crimes of which they
have been guilty, they generally divulge the truth. They fel-.
dom quarrel among themfelves or make ufe of provoking language.
Though naturally o f a fearful and cowardly difpofi-:
tion, they will run into the face of danger i f led on by their'
fuperiors; and they fuffer pain with great patience. They
arc by no means deficient in talent, but they poflefs little exertion
to call it into aftion : the want of this'was the principal
caufe o f their ruin. The indolence of a Hottentot is a real dif-
eafb, whofe only remedy feems to be that of terror. Hunger’
is infufficient to efledt the cure. Rather than to have the!
trouble of procuring food by the chace, or o f digging1 the1
ground for roots, they will willingly fall the whole ;day prtfu
vided they may be allowed to fleep. Inftan'ces frequently»
occurred in the courfe of our joumies, when our Hottentots’
have palled the day without a morfel of food, in 'preference of
having the trouble to walk half a mile for a iheep. Yet,-
though they are fo exceedingly patient of hunger, they are St?
the fame time the greateft gluttons upon the face of the earth.
Ten o f our Hottentots ate a middling-fized ox, all but the two
hindlegs, in three daysj but they had very little fleep during"
the time, and had failed the two preceding days.! With them
the word is.to eat or to fleep. When they cannot indulge m
the gratification o f the one, they generally find immediate
relief in flying to the other.
Their manner of eating marks the voracity of their appfetite:'
Having cut from the animal a large fteak, they etitef “one 'edge
with
with the knife, and palling it round in a fpira} manner till they
come to the middle, they produce a firing of meat two or three
yards in length. The whole animal is prefently cut into iuch
firings j and while fome are employed in this bufinefs, and in
fufpending them on the branches of the fhrubbery, others are
broiling the firings coiled round and laid upon the afhes.
When the meat is juft warmed through they grafp it in both
hands, and applying one end of the firing to the mouth, foon
get through a yard of flefh. The afhes of the green wood that
adhere to the meat ferve as a fubftitute for fait. As foon as a
firing of meat has pafled through their hands, they are cleaned
by rubbing over different parts of their body. Greafe thus
applied from time to time, and accumulating perhaps for a
whole year, fometimes melting by the fide of a large fire.and
catching up duft and dirt, covers at length the furface of the
body with a thick black coating that entirely conceals the real
natural color of the ikin. This is difcoverable only on the face
and hands, which they keep fbmewhat cleaner than the other
parts of the body by rubbing them with the dung of cattle.
This takes up the greafe, upon which water would have no
effedt.
The drefs of a Hottentot is very fimple. It confifts o f a belt
made of a thong cut from the ikin of fome animal. From this
belt is fufpended before a kind of cafe made out of the ikin of
the jackal. The ihape is that of half a nine-pin cut longitudinally,
and the convex and hairy fide is outermoft. The intention
of this cafe is to receive thofe parts of the body for which
moft nations have adopted fome fort of covering; but few,
x who