Page:George McCall Theal, Ethnography and condition of South Africa before A.D. 1505 (2nd ed, 1919).djvu/141

Rh they wanted a kaross. They never killed them if they had anything else to eat.

It will be noticed that in one or two of these replies the information given is slightly different from that in previous pages of this volume, which arises from the fact that the Namaqua chiefs possessed much more power over their followers than those of the tribes south of the Great or Orange river. Captain Alexander says further of their customs:

“I never saw or heard of a people with fewer ceremonies or observances. They take wives to themselves merely by giving presents to the parents; sometimes two chiefs will have four wives between them; this is, I think, new. When a young woman attains the age of puberty, she is led round the kraal, to touch various things for good luck; thus she touches the milk bambus in the houses, the rams in the fold. When a person is sick, the doctor comes and orders a good sheep to be killed, as he can do nothing without first eating plenty of fat; he reserves a little of the fat to smear the patient with, or he scarifies the flesh over the seat of the disease. When death happens, a hole is dug with a gemsbok's horn or a stick; the body is thrust into it in a sitting posture, stones are piled over it, and the horn or stick is left upright on the heap.”

The credulity of the Hottentots was that of children. Thus they really believed that there were Bushwomen who could change themselves into wild animals at will, as an instance of which the following account was given to Captain Alexander:

A certain Namaqua was travelling in company with a Bushwoman carrying a child on her back. They had proceeded some distance on their journey when a troop of wild horses appeared, and the man said to the woman: “I am hungry, and as I know you can turn yourself into a lion, do so now, and catch us a wild horse, that we may eat.”

The woman answered, “You'll be afraid.”

“No, no,” said the man; “I am afraid of dying of hunger, but not of you.”