Aueuft. a child, and among other play-things had the leg-bone of an ox, which he ufed as a cart, it appeared to him to his. great aftoniihment, that it was fucked out of a fick per- fon’s back by one of thefe wizards ; _ and, as far as he could truft to his memory, he recollected that the patient got quite well after this operation. A wizard that was taken by a party of Hottentots to a lion-hunt, in order to exer- cife his magic power upon the lion, was foon tom in pieces by the animal. Several boors took occafion from this incident to reproach the Hottentots with their credulous partiality towards thefe fellows; but they ftill periifted in their fentiments, being rather inclined to think, that fome more powerful magician, a foe to the deceafed, had brought this misfortune upon him. So that a conjurer among thefe people lays the more fimple of them under a kind of contribution by his fuperior cunning, juft as ours do our country fo lk ; but, on the other hand, more frequently runs the rifque o f being fufpedted o f occafioning the mifchief that happens. A Caffre prince chanced in his old age to have fore eyes, and could get no cure for them. He therefore ordered all thofe that were drilled in magic to be put to death, where- ever they were found; no doubt, on the fame principle as Herod did the children in Bethlehem, thinking that in the number he might happen to hit on the man who had bewitched him. This prince is faid to have been living but a few years ago; his name was P a l o o , which by moil of the eolonifls was converted into Pharaoh. Of the princes who reigned over the different nations of Gaffres, while I was in Africa, the moil powerful was faid to be Amahote or ‘Tamus. ‘tamus. A chief among the Hottentots, called Captain R u t t e r , of whom I ihall have occafion to ipeak by and by, is alfo Reported to have perfecuted and put to death fome forcerers, whom he fufpedled of having brought a difeafe on him by witchcraft. Though the Hottentots are fo fuperilitious, yet they are not, as far as I know, in the leail afraid o f being in the dark. They feem, however, to have fome idea o f fpirits, and a belief in a future ftate, as they accoil their friends as foon as they are dead with reproaches for leaving them fo foon; at the fame time, admoniihing them henceforth to demean themfelves properly; by which they mean, that their deceafed friends Ihould not come back again and haunt them, nor allow themfelves to be made ufe o f by wizards, to bring any mifchief on thofe that furvive them. There is a genus o f infeils (the mantis,) called by the colon ills the Hottentot’s god', but fo far are they from wor- ihipping theie infedls, that they have more than once catched feme o f them, and given them townie to flick needles through them, by way o f preferving them, as I did with other infedls. There is, ho we very a diminutive fpecies o f this genus o f infeits, which fome think it Would be a crime, as well as very dangerous,' to do any harm to; but this we have no more realori to look upon as a kind o f religious worihip, than we have to confider in the fame light, a certain fuperilitious notion prevalent among many o f the more fimple people in our own country, who imagine, that three fins will be forgiven them, i f they fet a cock-chafer on its feet that has ■ happened to have fallen upon its back. E e 2 The '77JAuguft. W d
27f 72-1
To see the actual publication please follow the link above