Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 2.djvu/402

 delighted me with their beauty. These plants, cultivated with so much care in England, were growing wild in every direction surrounding the little stony sheep-path I was ascending.

They say mechanics use the oil from the tip of the tail of the Cape sheep for their machinery, and that it does not become foul in the works. Five pounds' weight of the tips of the tails of the sheep costs two shillings and sixpence, and produces two quarts and a half of fine clear oil, after having been melted over the fire and strained through a flannel bag. Animals in southern Africa appear to run to tail: see the enormous size of the tail of the sheep into which all the fat of the body appears to be collected: see the pretty mousehunt (a sort of fox), the Hottentot women in Cape Town, and the Bushwomen; all these have the beauty of the Hottentot Venus. Some of the Malays, both men and women, are handsome: the Africanders are too universally well known to need description.

THE BUSHWOMAN.

The Bojesmāns or Bushmen are a most remarkable race. In one of my solitary rambles on Table Mountain, I came suddenly upon three of these people, who were squatting round a small fire in a cleft of the rock. Curiosity induced me to stop and look at them; they appeared to dislike my presence and scrutiny, and, as far as I could judge from the angry tone of their words and their suspicious glances, they were glad when I walked on.

The speech of the Bojesmāns is a most remarkable and extraordinary clack clack—unlike any other language under the sun, something resembling the striking together of harsh castanets. The sketch represents a Bushwoman; it is a portrait; she has a bunch of bulbs in her hand: they principally feed on roots and vegetables. Her attire is of leather; coloured beads are around her neck, her ear-rings are of ivory, a curious ornament is in front of her body, and her kraal or hut is in the distance.

In 1847, I saw four Bojesmāns who were exhibited at the Egyptian Hall; they were handsome specimens of their kind; the women were younger than the one represented in the