Page:George McCall Theal, Ethnography and condition of South Africa before A.D. 1505 (2nd ed, 1919).djvu/121

Rh riem drawn tight round the body. There were no stirrups, and from the skin of the ox being much looser than that of the horse, as firm a seat was not possible. Still both sexes rode these animals with ease, having been accustomed to do so from childhood.

The sheep possessed by the Hottentots were covered with hair instead of wool, were of various colours, and had long lapping ears and tails four or five kilogrammes in weight. The tails were composed almost entirely of fat, which could be melted as easily as tallow, and which was relished as a dainty, just as it is to-day by many Europeans, who prefer it to butter. It was also largely used by the Hottentots to rub their bodies with, and to make their skin karosses flexible. Animals possessing such appendages were of course hardier than European sheep, and could exist much longer on scanty herbage in seasons of drought. The milk as well as the flesh was used for food. Children were taught to suck the ewes, and often derived their whole sustenance from this source.

The only other domestic animal was the dog. He was an ugly creature, his body being shaped like that of a jackal, and the hair on his spine being turned forward; but he was a faithful, serviceable animal of his kind.

The milk of their cows was the chief article of the diet of the Hottentots. It was preserved either in skin bags or in vessels made by hollowing a block of wood, and after coagulation formed healthy and nutritious food. It was drunk either by using a tortoise shell as a basin or by sucking a little swab that had been dipped into it. The bags and vessels used were commonly in a filthy state, as indeed was everything else in and about the huts, for in this respect the Hottentots were only slightly superior to Bushmen. Though so fond of flesh that they devoured seals and dead whales that washed ashore, even in a putrid state, they did not kill horned cattle for food, except on occasions of revelry and feasting, but they ate all that died a natural death.