32 A V O Y A G E t o t h e ‘775* he had no faith in witchcraft, and had an equal contempt December. . v^v-o for their menaces and their favage manners. A baftard Hottentot, who had accompanied him in this expedition, had been wounded in the ihoulder with a poi- fbned arrow. The poifon had been fucked out of the wound immediately. The tumour had not abfolutely a bad appearance; yet the wounded man was by no. means well, and was himfelf in doubt whether he ihould get over it or not. Nothing was laid upon it but the bruifed leaves of the Hottentot fig-tree. They keep their milk in leathern facks, o f which I have given a defcription above, never eating it till it is curdled but the veffels they milked it into were bafkets o f a peculiar kind, compofed o f roots plaited together fo curiouily, and in fo clofe a manner, that they would not only hold milk but even water. Thefe veffels would be as neat as they are light, i f the Hottentots did not always neglect to waih them. Indeed, moil of thefe bafkets had acquired fuch an appearance, from the milk being encrufted upon them, as at firft induced us to fuppofe that they were be- fmeared with cow-dung, in order to make them hold the liquor the better. But I have iince tried bafkets, that were quite new and clean, particularly one that, I had brought home with me, and found, that without any kind of daubing, they did not leak in the leaft. Thefe milk-pails, or bafkets, are moftly o f the ihape of that delineated in Plate I. Vol. I. fig. i . holding from a pint and a half to four gallons ;■ and befides the advantage of being yery light, they have likewise that of their rims being fqffiriently pliable, No C A P E OF G O O D H O P E . No cows of the African breed, whether they belong to Dec^5b'er. the coionifts or Hottentots, will fuffer themfelves to be milked, without their hind legs being firft tied together ; as they otherwife never fail either to kick the perfons who milk them, or get away from them. The interpreter, I have been jull fpeaking of, defired me, therefore, to ob- ferve here, as being an uncommon circumftance, that feve- ral of the cows belonging to thefe baftard Caffres, allowed themfelves to be milked without being tied up. I likewife remarked, tfiat the cows here, whether tied up or loofe, were, for the molt part, too fhy and wild to fuffer themfelves to be milked, except their calves were with them, and had previoufly fucked them a little. The herdfmen themfelves in this place were alfo defirous that I ihould take notice, as a matter o f curiofity, o f the manner in which a cow, who had brought forth a dead calf, was at length induced to be milked. The artifice ufed for this purpofe, confifled in letting her always put her nofe in the ikin of her dead calf juft before fhe was milked. Circumcifion is praftifed by thefe Hottentots as well as by the Gonaquas and Caffres, and is. performed upon youths at that period o f life, when, to ufe their own expreffion, they become half-men. Yet they generally fuit the time fo, as to have an opportunity of performing the operation upon feveral at once. ' The next morning, being the i ith , we were waked by the Hottentots finging and dancing; and with this rejoicing, or, at leaft, appearance o f happinefs and delight, it feems that this fimple race o f people always begin and con- . V o l . II. F chide
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