>775- or lie in a circle round the fire, the whole company equally e n j o y s the benefit of its. Warmth. The door, low as it is, is the only place that lets in the day-light; and at the fame time, the only outlet that is left for the fmoke. The Hottentot, inured to it from his in fancy, fees it hover round him, without feeling the leaft inconvenience arifing from it to his eyes;- while lying at the bottom of his hut in the midft of the cloud rolled up like a hedgehog, and wrapped up fnug in his iheep-fkin, he is now and then obliged to peep out from beneath it yi order to itir the fire,, or perhaps light his . pipe, or elfe fometimes to turn the fteak he ia broiling over the coals. The materials for thefe huts are by ho means difficult to be procured; and the manner of putting them together being both neat and inartificial, merits commendation in a Hottentot, and is very fuitabic to his charadler The frame of this arched roof, as I have deferibed it above, is compofed of flender rods: or fpraysnf trees. Thefe rods, being previoufly bent into a proper form, are laid, either whole or pieced, fome parallel with each other, others, croffwife; they are then ftrengthened, by binding others round them in a circular form With withies. Thefe Withies, as well as. the rods themfelves, are taken, as well as 1 can recollefk, chiefly from the .cliffbrtiu conoides, which grows plentifully in this country near the rivers. Large mats are then placed very neatly over this lattice-Work, fo as perfectly to cover the whole. The aperture which is left for the door is clofed, whenever there is occaiion for it, with a ikin fitted to it, or a, piece of matting. Thefe mats are made of a kind of cane or reed. Thefe reeds, being being laid parallel to each other, are fattened together with finews or catgut, or elfe fome kind of packthread, fuch as they have had an opportunity of getting from the Europeans. They have it, therefore, in their power, to make their mats as long as they chufe, and at the fame time as broad as the length o f the rufh will admit of, viz. from fix to ten feet. This fame kind o f matting is now made ufe of likewife by the colonifts, next to the tilts of their waggons, by way of -preventing the fail-eloth from being rubbed and worn by them, as well as o f helping to keep out the rain. When a Hottentot has a mind to take his houfe down and remoye his dwelling, he lays all his mats, ikins, and fprays on the backs of his cattle, which to a ftranger makes a monftrous, unwieldy, and, indeed, ridiculous ap-- pearance. The order or diftribution o f thefe huts in a craal or clan, is moft frequently in the form of a circle with the doors inwards ;. by this means a kind of yard or court is formed, where the cattle is kept on nights. The milk, as foon as taken from the cow, is put to other milk which is curdled, and is kept in a leather fack; of this the hairy fide, being; confidered as the cleanlier, is turned inwards: fothat the milk is never drank while it is fweet. In certain northern diftridls, fuch as Roggeveld, or Bokveld, where the- land is, as it is called, carrow, or dry and parched, the Hottentots, as well as the colonifts, are fhepherds. There is another fpecies o f Hottentots, who have got the name of bojhies-men, from dwelling in woody or mountainous. places. Thefe, particularly fuch as live round
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