thunberg’s account of the cape of good hope.

29

were burned quite black, and left Handing in this footy condition for a great length oftime afterwards, to my great vexation, as well as that of other travellers, who wereobliged to pafs through them.

Almoft every day we were wet to the fkin, in confequence of deluging fhowers ofrain, which were fometimes accompanied with thunder. Though at this feafon theyhave always fine weather near the Cape, it appeared as if winter and the rainy feafonhad not yet taken leave of this part of the country. The rain was the more trouble-fome to us, as, befides that we had no opportunity of getting fhelter here, and the Ihortintervals of fun-fhine were not fufficient to dry us when wet to the Ikin; the ground, like-wife, efpecially of the hills, was now fo wet and flippery, that our horfes being, accord-ing to the invariable cuftom of the country, unfhod, {tumbled continually, and in manyplaces we were in great danger of breaking our arms and legs.

On the 2d of November we were overtaken by fome remarkably heavy fhowers,when we crofted Quaiman’s Drift, a river which, like many other rivers here near thefea, rifes and falls with the tide; and, after pafting through feveral woody vales andrivers, at length arrived at Magerman’s Kraal, a colony or grazing-farm, belonging toFrederick Seelft

More weary and wet, or in a worfe plight, we never could have been, and worfe wecould never have been accommodated than at this place. No European dwelt here,but a black female Have a&ed in her mailer’s abfence as miftrefs of the houfe, and hadthe fuperintendance over a great herd of cattle, and over the Hottentots that tendedthem. The houfe was an oblong cottage, conftrucled of timber, and daubed all over 'with clay. In this I and my companions, with a great number of Elottentots, wereobliged to pafs the night, happy to have fome kind of fhelter from the rain, wind, andcold.

As in the courfe of the few days fince we had left our waggon, we had made fomecollections, and therefore could not pofttbly flow every thing upon our horfes’ backs,we were under the neceftity of taking three oxen from the houle above-mentioned, tocarry our baggage, and three Hottentots to lead them.

Oxen are much ufed in thefe parts, when tamed and broken in by the Hottentots, tocarry burdens. Thefe oxen have a hole through the cartilage of their nofe, in whichis put a flick, at both ends of which are fattened ftraps, like a bridle, by the help ofwhich the oxen are guided.

In different places we obferved pits dug, like thofe in which wolves are ufually caught,and in which, when well covered over by the Hottentots, buffaloes and wild beafts aretaken.

The Hottentots always carry the javelin or two (Affagays J with them on their jour-neys. Thefe affagays confift of an iron-fpear hollowed out on each fide about fix incheslong, with or without an iron {haft, which is fometimes round and finooth, and fome-times grooved. This fpear is fattened with thongs of leather to a flender round flick,five feet long, made of the affagay wood (curtifia faginea ), and tapering towards theend. With thefe lances, which they throw with great dexterity to the diftance evenof one hundred paces, they defend themfelves againfl their enemies and wild beafts,and are able to kill with them, buffaloes, and other animals.

Inftead of China-veffels and calabafhes, poverty had taught them to ufe the fhells ofthe tortoifes, which frequent the bufhes in the fandy plains, particularly the tejludominuta and geometrica.

From their frequent befmearing themfelves, as w r ell as from the heat of the climate,the Hottentot women have always very flabby brealls, that hang down very low. And

therefore,