the ground, contributed to the ilJufion. On feeing the bodies of thefe men as flender as the stem of a tree, you would almoft fuppofe them to have paffed through the inftrument of a wire-drawer. "Lefs deep in colour than the Caffres, they have at the fame time more pleasing features than the other Hottentots, because their nofe is lefs fattened, and their cheeks lefs prominent. But their cold and unmeaning countenances, their phlegmatic and immoveable air, give them a particular character by which they are diftinguifhed. Every time I looked at them, I fancied I beheld one of thofe lank, longvilaged, gothic figures placed at the church-doors in certain catholic countries as if to ferve as fentinels. "I have already faid, that the women do not share this tranquil apathy. Gay, lively, fportive, and loving much to laugh, you would fuppofe them to be formed of different materials. It is eafy enough to conceive, that a man and wife may live peaceably together, notwithstanding fuch difference of difpofition; but it is not eafy to underftand or explain how fuch melancholy fathers can beget daughters fo gay, or fuch fprightly women bear Tons fo dull. "The krofs differs not at all in hape from the Hottentot cloak; only, as I have before remarked, it is longer Many of them ufe the fkins of the hyena, the jackal, or the ifatis, when they are lucky enough to procure a fufficiency to make a krofs. "They ornament them with glafs beads, and plates of copper, which they obtain from the Hottentots of the colony. I found a mong them a particular fort of thefe beads, confifting of little long . tubes of different colours, and tranfparent. Thefe being unknown at the Cape, I wished to know whence the favages procured them. They informed me, that they got them by barter with other neighbouring nations, who had them only at the fecond hand; and that they came originally from the blacks who dwelt on the coaft of the Indian fea, to the euft of Africa, by whom they were fabricated. "If the beads of which I am fpeaking were ftones or gems coloured by nature, it might be believed that the blacks of the weft, after having reduced them to little pieces, might know how to fhape and perforate them; as the favages of Guiana do with the amazonian ftone. I have found coloured fubftances in feveral rocks on the weft of Africa, and there may be the fame on the eaft. But thefe in question are enamels; that is to fay, glafs, made by fufion and formed by blowing. Now as fuch an operation requires, not only for the melting, but alfo for the compofition of the colours, confiderable kill, implements, chemical knowledge, &c. I think it may be affirmed, without any great rafhnefs, that the negroes of the eaft were never mafters of fuch an art; and that the enamels they fell to their neighbours probably come from the Portuguefe colonies of Mofambique. I have in my cabinet one of thefe girdles of glafs beads, and I can affert that it is neither of French nor Dutch manufacture. "Befide the kind of decoration which I have juft defcribed, the Greater Nimiquas ufe another, that of daubing their hair with a thick layer of greafe, mingled with the powder of different odoriferous woods. Many of them tattoo their faces, arms, and even bodies. But the the latter custom is not fo prevalent among them, as among other people more to the north. This too may be a native cuftom, which the fame fpirit of coquetry that gave rife to it in other nations may have equally prompted the Nimiquas to invent. "As to religion, divine worship, priefts, temples, and the idea of an immortal foul, they are all nonentities to them. On thefe fubjects, like all the rest of the favages their neighbours, they have not the flightest notion. Nature has told them, fufficiently plain, not to do to another what they would not another fhould do to them; and their little affo. ciations, which are a cominence ment of civilization, lead them in this refpect farther than many cul. tivated people, by enjoining them to do to others as they would be done by." "After what I have faid of the phlegmatic temper of the Nimiquas, it will be fuppofed that they are by no means warlike. Yet, like the furrounding nations, they have their affagays and poifoned arrows; and like them cau handle these arms with dexterity. They poffefs alfo thofe war-oxen, fo formidable in battle, and fo favourable to the cowardice or inactivity of the combatants. They have even a peculiar implement of war, which their neighbours have not. This is a large buckler, of the height of the perfon who bears it, behind which the Nimiqua can completely conceal himself. But, befide that his natural apathy prevents him from giving or taking offence, he is in reality pufillanimous and cowardly from the coldnefs of his difpofition. To utter only the name of Houzouana before him is fufficient to make him trem ble. This name is that of a neigh, bouring nation, born brave and warlike, and diftinguished from o ther African nations by peculiar features. I fhall fodn have occa. fion to speak of them. "Nowithstanding his frigidity, the Nimiqua is not infenfible to pleasure. He even seeks with avidity thofe which, requiring but little exertion, are capable of agi tating him and procuring agreeable fenfations. Every evening, as foon as the fire was kindled in my camp, thirty or forty perfons, men and women, would come and fit with my people in a circle round it. For fome time a profound filence was maintained: at length one of them would open his mouth to relate a ftory, and would then speak without ceafing for hours together. I was not fufficiently acquainted with the language to comprehend the whole of the narration; but I understood, that it commonly related to fome event to the honour of the nation, and that the unfor tunate hero of the tale was alooft always a hyæua, a lion, or a Houzouana. Every now and then, the orator was interrupted by the noify fallies of the women who fhock their very fides with laughter. The men, without taking any fhare in this extravagant mirth, reatoned gravely, and with an appearance of profound thought, on the circumftances they had just heard. In the midst of this grotefque and incoagruous picture, I amufed myfelf with the dignity of the reafoners; while the women, who faw me fmile, and knew that I understood nothing of the tale, redoubled their laughter till they were out of breath. "Their musical inftruments are the fame as thofe of the other Hot, tentots; but their dancing is very different, and refembles the temper of of the nation. If the countenance have received from nature, features that can exprefs our paffions, the body has alfo its attitudes and movements that paint our temper and feelings. The dance of the Nimiqua is frigid, like himself, and fo devoid of grace and hilarity, that, were it not for the extreme gaiety of the women, it might be called the dance of the dead. "These tortoises, to whom dancing is a fatigue, fhow little eager nefs for any thing but wagers, games of calculation and chance, and all the fedentary amufements which require patience and reflec tion, of which they are more ca pable than they are of motion. "One of their favourite games is what they call the tiger and the lambs. It is nearly as follows: I fay nearly, for I never understood it fufficiently to be able clearly to explain it. "An oblong square is traced on the ground, in which are made a certain number of holes, two or three inches deep, forming a fort of chefs-table. The holes are made in ranks, fide by fide, but the number is not fixed. I have feen them varying from twenty to forty. "To play, they take a certain number of pieces of fheep's-dung, hardened by drying, proportionate to the number of holes, and which reprefent lambs. Some of the holes are alfo called lambs, and into these are put balls. The holes that remain empty, are called tigers. Perhaps they reprefent only differeft dens of the fame animal, and the retreats or ambufcades which he occupies fucceffively one after the other. The player begins by taking fome lambs out of their holes, and putting them into other holes of the tiger. Perhaps this tiger has a regular movement like fome of our pieces at chefs, and the art of the player confifts in avoiding this movement, to fave his lambs, and prevent them from being de voured. At least, when it has beeri neceffary to place them elsewhere, I have feen him double his attention; but he fometimes brings them together or feparates them in fuch a confufed manner, that, being un able to follow the game, I have been confounded by the movements, and could comprehend nothing farther, till the moment when the stakes were taken up. "There is another game, which, being much more eafy, because it is fimply a game of chance, is on that account fo much the more dangerous; for the Nimiquas, fond of it to diftraction, frequently rifk, in playing at it, their herds and all they poffefs. It confiderably refembles our huftle-cap. The feed of the mimofa of the country is a fort of bean, which conftitutes the principle food of the giraffe. They take a certain number of thefe feeds, engrave fome mark on one of their fides, which anfwers the fame purpose to them that the head or the tail of a piece of mo. hey does to our gamblers, and after they have huftled them fome time between their two hands, they throw them on the ground, when they have nothing to do but to count whether the marked or unmarked fides uppermost are noft numerous. "This game, contrived equally to pleafe the indolent; because it does not fatigue them, and the ftupid, because it requires no capacity of thought, wonderfully delighted my Hottentots. They foon gave into it with fuch ardour, that they did nothing else from morning to night; and many of them, after having loft all they poffeffed, ftaked, as their laft refource, the allowance of tobacco and brandy that they were to receive the fucceeding days. Nothing now was left for them but to rob me; and I had reafon to fear they would do fo. To cut off the temptation, I re-established an equality of fortune among them, by restoring to each what he had loft, aware that the fole hope of regaining this makes gamblers; and I had then no need of proclamations to prevent in future fuch diforder in my camp. "Several Nimiquas had accompanied me from the former horde to this; they appeared even to take pleafure in being with me; but, the moment my people were prohibited from playing with them, they no longer found my camp fo agreeable, and came to announce to me their departure. "Nevertheless, as they had every reason to be fatisfied with my conduct towards them, they expreffed, on quitting me, great friendhip and attachment; and, as I had Just purchased fome oxen for my waggons, they even offered to take them under their care, and deliver them to Swanepoel at my camp on the Orange River. This offer I accepted. In return, I made them à few prefents; I entrusted them with my cattle, after having mark ed them; and they went away fatisfied. "Scarcely had they quitted me, when one of my Hottentots came to ask a favour of me. He was de firous of making one of the Nimiquas of the horde a prefent of a fine cow. He had already fomething towards paying for her, which he had gained at play: but he had not enough, and requested me to advance him, in part of his wages, a little hard-ware, that he might have it in his power to conclude his bargain. "A gift of fuch confequence implied fome great fervice received. Before I affented to his request, I would know what had given rife to it; and I found that the cow was not a prefent, but an article of barter. My Hottentot was in love with the daughter of the Nimiqua; and, to obtain her, he had offered him a cow, which the Nimiqua had confented to accept. "In this manner are marriages made in all the African nations; and fuch was originally the custom throughout the world, before the imagination of poets, and the policy of civilized focieties, had fubftituted in the ftead of love a reprefentative, who, under the name of Hymen, claiming alone the right of uniting the fexes, contributes but too often to disturb and deprave their union. Among favages there is no contract, no witnefs, no ceremony. A man and woman please each other; they live together; and this constitutes them hufband and wife. If the woman have parents, fhe is confidered as their property, and of courfe they muft either give of fell her," PICTURE PICTURE of the HouzouANAS, the probable original Stem of the various Tribes of HOTTENTOTS. [From the Third Volume of the fame Work.] "Tlow flature, and a perfon five feet four incues in height is accounted among them very tali; but in their little bodies, perfectly well proportioned, are united, with furprifing frength and agility, a certain air of affurance, boldnefs, and haughtiness, which awes the beholder, and with which I was greatly pleafed. Of all the favage races, I have feen none that appeared to be endowed with fo active a mind, and fo hardy a conftitution. HE Houzouanas are of "Their head, though it exhibits the principal characteristics of that of the Hottentot, is, however, rounder towards the chin. They are alfo not fo black in complexion; but have the lead colour of the Malays, diftin guished at the Cape by the name of bouguinée. Their hair, more woolly, is fo fhort that I imagined at first their heads to have been fhaved. The nofe too is still flatter than that of the Hottentots; or, rather, they feem altogether deftitute of a nofe; what they have confifting only of two broad noftrils which project at moft but five or fix lines, Accordingly, mine being the only one in the company formed after the European manner, I appeared in their eyes as a being disfigured by nature. They could not be reconciled to this difference, which they confidered as a monstrous deformity; and, during the first days of my refidence among them, I faw their eyes continually fixed on my countenance, with an air of afto nishment truly laughable. "From this conformation of the nole, a Houzouana, when feen in and confiderably refembles an ape. When beheld in front, he prefents on the first view, an extraordinary appearance, as half the face feems to be fore-head. The features, however, are fo expreffive, and the eyes fo large and lively, that, notwithstanding this fingularity of look, the countenance is tolerably agree able. profile, is the reverse of hand fome, "As the heat of the climate in which he lives renders clothing un neceffary, he continues during the whole year almoft entirely naked, having no other covering than a very fmall jackal-skin faftened round his loins by two thongs, the extre mities of which hang down to his knees. Hardened by this conftanţ habit of nakedness, he becomes fo infenfible to the variations of the atmosphere, that, when he removes from the burning fands of the level country to the fnow and hoar-froft of his mountains, he feems indifferent to and not even to feel the cold. "His hut in no-wife refembles that of the Hottentot. It appears as if cut vertically through the middle; fo that the hut of a Hottentot would make two of thofe of the Houzouanas. During their emigrations, they leave them ftanding, in order that, if any other horde of the fame nation pafs that way, they may make ufe of them. When on a journey, they have nothing to repofe on but a mat fufpended from two sticks, and placed in an inclined pofition. They often even fleep on the bare ground. A projecting rock is then fufficient |