' 775- youna: ones was like that of our common pigs, as I found in December. ~ r fome we afterwards caught. I have it from pretty good authority, that one J o s h u a d e B o e r , a farmer in Gamdebo, had fucceeded in obtaining a brood of thefe wood-ffwine, which had been coupled with the ordinary fort; but as the perfon who told it me had not fufficiently informed himfelf concerning the circumftances, I could not get any farther inlight into the matter. This experiment having failed in Holland, as mentioned by M. P a l l a s , is no reafon why it Ihould not fucceed better in other places. I obferved a peculiar circumftance on my return home through Lange-kloof, which was, that two tame pigs at a farmer’s in that province, not only went down on their knees to graze, but even fucceffively changed this pofture to that of Handing, with the greateft eafe. This faculty the animal feems to have acquired in its fub- terraneous caverns, and it proceeds from the creature’s neck being too ihort to be conveniently lowered to the ground. The African wood-fwine are likewife diftinguiihed from any other fpecies of fwine, by four peculiar caruncles or ex- crefcences. Two o f thefe are broad and flat, being about two inches over both in length and breadth, and are placed at the diftance o f a hand’s breadth juft before and underneath, the eyes. The other two are fpherical, an inch high, and are lituated on the nofe at three inches diftance, in a ftraight line from behind the jaws. The tail is flatted at the t ip ; and this appendage they never fail, either old or young, to hold quite eredt in the air during during the whole time that they are purfued. With re- fpedt to tafte, I found the flelh very much refemble that o f the ordinary p ig ; but never obferved the animals them- felves to be of that dark hue afcribed to them by M. P a l l a s ,. and which M. V o s m a e r has given them in the coloured figures he has publilhed; thofe that I faw being only of a bright yellow-colour, like the greateft part of our do- meftic fwine. Neither did I hear any body in the colony call them baartloopers, as M. V o sm a e r pretends''they are termed: though, on the other hand, 1 have frequently heard the Hottentots call them kaunaba, and have likewife been informed by them, that thefe creatures are fond of wallowing in the mire, and are wont to grub after the root of a ihrub of the mefembryanthemum kind, which they call da-t'kai. At night we came to the upper part o f fKurenoi, or Eittle Sunday-river. We fixed our refting-place at the diftance o f a few gun-ihots from a clan of bajlards, or Hottentot-Caffres, who are the offspring of the mixture of both thefe nations. They chiefly fpoke the Caffre language, but had neither the large lips, robuft, and eafy form, nor the black complexion o f the Caffres. They appeared to me not fo fwarthy as my own Hottentots, and I fuppofe, that they originate only from a fet'of people, who having acquired fome cattle by fervitude among the Caffres, had formed themfelves into this fociety. The iris of their eyes was of a very dark brown hue, and al- moft, if not quite as dark as the pupil. They had a great quantity of cattle, and feemed to live very happily in their E 2 way.
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