A1u7v7u5f*t .' i / v O from. In the ftate in which it is feen, as it makes part of the .arrow, it is o f a dark brown colour, full of fmall ■grooves and ribs, and does not appear ever to have been as white as ivory; though, for one of the arrows which I brought with me, it would feem as if ivory had been really made ufe of. Hence we may conclude, that on fuch arrows as are headed with iron, the bone is employed chiefly for giving this weapon a kind of weight and poife; and likewife, that thefe arrows coft the Hottentots a great deal of labour. Their quivers (vide Plate VIII. fig. 5-) are two feet long and four inches in diameter. I f one may draw any con- clufion from thofe I have feen, and from two that I have brought home with me, they are made of a branch of a tree hollowed out; or, ftill more probably, of,the bark of one thefe branches taken off whole and entire, the bottom and cover to which are compofed o f leather. On the outfide it is bedaubed with an undtuous matter, that grows hard when dry. Both the quivers I brought with me, are lined about the aperture with a ferpent’s fkin; and, as I was told, with the ikin of the yellow ferpent, which is confidered as the moft venomous o f any in that country. Befides a dozen o f arrows, every quiver contains a flender hone o f iand-ftone for whetting the iron head, and a bruih for putting on the poifon, together with a few wooden flicks, differing in thicknefs, but all of the fame length with the arrows. For what ufe thefe are defigned, I am entirely ignorant. The poifon is taken from feveral different kinds o f ferpents, the more Venomous the better; whether their arrows are to be employed againft their foes, or or are only defigned for Ihooting game; for, as I have fs- obferved before, the Hottentots know very well, that taken internally it is quite harmlefs. The. dwellings of thefe foes to a paftoral life are generally not more agreeable, than, their maxims and manners. Like the wild beafts, buihes and clifts in rocks by turns ferve them inftead o f houfes; and feme o f them are faid to be io far worle than beafts, that their foil has been found clofe by their habitations. A great many of them are entirely naked, but fuch as have been able to procure the fkin of. any fort of animal, great or fmall, cover their bodies with it from the ihoulders downwards as far as it will reach, wearing it till it falls off their backs in rags. As ignorant of agriculture as apes and monkies, like them they are obliged to wander about over hills and dales after certain wild, roots, .berries, and plants .(which they eat raw) in order to fuftain a life that this miferable food would foon extinguiih and deftroy, were they ufed to better fare. Their table, however, is fometimes compofed o f feveral other diihes, among which may be reckoned the larvse of infedts, or thofe kind of caterpillars from which butterflies are generated; and in like manner a fort o f white ants, (the termes) graihoppers, fnakes, and feme forts of fpiders. With all thefe changes of diet, the Bojhies-man is neverthelefs frequently, in want, and famiihed to fuch a degree, as to wafte almoft to a ihadow. It was with no fmall aftoniihment, that I for the firft time faw in Lange Kloof a lad belonging to this race of men, with his face, arms, legs and body fo monftroufly fmall and withered, that I could not have been induced to fuppofe but that he had Vo l . I. D d - been
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