30 8 iìm O&ober. A V O Y A G E t o t h e could be formed, to what end or on what occaiion they had been laid up together. In a vale near this ipot I faw ieveral large pits, with a fharp ftake placed in the middle, intended as fnares to catch the larger fort of game. I and my horfe were very near being caught in one of them ourfelves. In the mountains near KUppen-drift lives, it is faid, a race of Hottentots, which, from the place of their abode, are called Mountain-Hottentots. Thefe are, without doubt, the fame kind of Boihies-men, that fteal and make their prey o f cattle, and, in other refpe&s, live on game and the natural produce of the fields, as I have defcribed above. The farmers hereabouts, on that account, did not dare to let their cattle feed at any diftance from their farms. At Zwarte Kloof, a farm between Krakkeel and Wagen- booms-rivier, they ihe wed 'me a Hottentot girl, about ten years old, who, though born and brought up in their fer- vice, had got, as they faid, even at that tender age, the Hottentot way of eloping. She had run away for a fortnight together, and in all this, time had lived on nothing but the wild produce of the fields and woods; and yet had kept up her fleih, and returned home plump and in good ■condition. On her return, ihe gave an account o f her- felf to the following purport. That ihe had wandered to a great diftance, and once at the fight o f a huge beaft, (which, on her giving a farther defcription of it, was fup- pofed to have been a lion) ihe was fo terribly frightened,, that ihe immediately made the beft of her way home. About Wagenbooms-rivier there is found, according to all accounts, a lizard as black as a coal,- about a foot in length,. C A P E o f G O O D H O P E . length, which we fuppofed to be very venomous, as the Hottentots teftified the greateft dread o f them. This crea- vn rO ture is faid, however, to be very rare. The heaps of.ftones lying near this fame river, are the peculiar abode o f great numbers of thofe little animals which are defcribed by M. P a l l a s , by the name o f cavia Capenjts % and by the co- lonifts are called daffes, or badgers. Thefe creatures, which have fome affinity with the ordinary marmots, ■and are about the fame fize, are eaten by many people, who look on them as a delicacy. They are likewife eafily made ex- ' tremely tame, and are found in many other place% in the African mountains. The little Daffen iilands on the weft- ern coaft of Africa, take their name from them. On thofe places in the mountains, where theie creatures dwell, there is found a fubftance called here Daffen-pifs. It refembles petrolaeum, or rock-oil, and by many, that have feen-it, is actually confidered as fuch. It is likevrife ufed by fome people for medical purpoies, and by them is fuppofed to have greater powers than is confiftent with any degree o f probability. Finding that this fubftance did not ftand the fame proofs as petrolaeum, and at the fame time that it was found only in places frequented by the daffes, I had fufficient reafon to conclude that it proceeded from this animal, and that it is tnoft probably the men- ftrual excretion of the creature; as obfervations made on a tame female of this ipecies, have given room for fuch a. fufpickm.; and as befides the dafs’S excrements are often found in this fubftance, and feldom any where elfe. * This animal is o f the fame genus with, the Guinea-pig, or c'iwia colaya..
27f 72-1
To see the actual publication please follow the link above