The Hottentot families, Who engage in the service of the colonists, live in small straw huts around the farm house. In a more independent state, they horde together in kraals or villages, where the houses are commonly ranged in a circle, with the doors opening towards the centre, and thus forming a kind of court, into which their cattle are collect ed at night, to preserve them from the beasts of prey. The huts are generally circular in their form, resembling a bee hive, covering a space about twenty feet in diameter, but commonly so low in the roof, that, even in the centre, it is rarely possible for a man of middle size to stand upright. The fire place is situated in the middle of the apartment, around which the family sit or sleep in a circle ; and the dour, which is seldom higher than three feet, is the only aperture for admitting the light, or letting out the smoke. The frame of these arched habitations is composed of slen der rods, capable of being bent in the desired form, some parallel with each other, some crossing the rest, and others bound round the whole in a circular direction. Over this lattice work are spread large mats, made of reeds or rushes, which are about six or ten feet long, and sewed to gether with a kind of thread, or rather catgut, made from tire dorsal sinews of different animals. These materials are easily taken down, and removed on the backs of the oxen, when there is occasion to change the place of resi dence.
These free Hottentots depend for subsistence upon the milk and flesh of their cattle, and the produce of their skill in the chace. They are excellent marksmen with the musket, but still make use occasionally of their ancient weapons, the Hassagai or javelin, and bow with poisoned arrows. The Hassagai is an iron spear about a foot in length, fastened to the end of a tapering shaft about four feet long, which is thrown from the hand by grasping it in the middle, raising it above the head, and delivering it with the fore-finger and thumb. The bow is a plain piece of wood, seldom much more than a:yard long, and sometimes tapering to a point at each extremity. It is furnished with a string composed of hemp, or the fibres of animal-ten dons twisted into a cord. The arrows are short, and con sist of a reed about a foot in length, with a piece of solid polished bone at one end, about five inches long, the top of which is sometimes pointed to serve as the head, but gene rally cut square, and provided with a small sharp piece of iron in the shape of an equilateral triangle. This is bound tight to the bone with threads, along with a bit of pointed quill, turning to the opposite end of the arrow by way of barb, and intended at once to increase the difficulty of ex tracting the weapon from the wound, and by tearing the flesh to make the poison mix more readily with the blood.
The poison is frequently taken from bulbous roots, or the most venomous serpents ; but is also prepared by macerat ing the leaves or branches of poisonous plants, and thick ening the juices, by boiling on the fire or evaporation under the heat of the sun. This preparation, in the consistence of varnish, is laid with a brush over the thread which binds on the tip of the arrow. Whenever an animal is killed with these arrows in hunting, the flesh around the wound is instantly cut away, and the blood squeezed out of the flesh. The quiver is made of a piece of wood hollowed out, frequently of the stem of an aloe, with a lid of skin or leather ; and generally contains a dozen arrows, a brush for laying on the poison, and a sand stone to whet the points of the weapons.
The Hottentots may be said to be entirely ignorant of arts and manufactures, except the formation of coarse earthen ware, the sewing of sheep skins for their winter garments, the preparation of poisons, and the making of bows and arrows.
They discover very little taste for music ; but a few in struments of sound have been observed among them. One is a kind of guitar with three strings stretched upon a piece of hollow wood, which has a long handle, and is called in their language gabowie. Another consists of a piece of sinew or intestine, twisted into a small cord and fastened upon a hol low stick about three feet long, by a piece of quill at one end fixed into the stick, and by a small peg at the other, which is made to turn for the purpose of stretching the string to the degree required. This instrument is called the and is played by applying the mouth to the quill, and pro ducing faint murmuring notes, by giving a vibratory motion to the string. A sort of flute made of the bark of trees is also used among them.
The physical knowledge of the Hottentots is extremely limited. All their astronomy consists in having a name for the sun, another for the moon, and a third for the stars. Their reckoning of time scarcely extends beyond the pe riod of a day, and expresses events past only by saying, that they were before or after some memorable occurrence. They indicate the time of the day when any thing happened, by pointing to the place in the heavens where the sun then was ; and the seasons of the year, by the number of moons before or after the time when the roots of the iris edulis (once ,a considerable article of their sustenance) arc ready for use. None of those whom Mr Barrow saw in the more distant parts of the colony could reckon beyond the number five, or put two numbers together without the help of their fingers.