CHAP. XV.

Particulars of the Greater Nimiquas—their distinction from the rest of the HottentotsStriking difference between the women and men-Dress and ornaments-Religion-An absurd custom on passing rivers-Uncommonly large bucklers Assagais their manner of telling traditional stories-Musical instruments, dancing, and favorite gamestheir Marriages - Curious Insects-Ideas of fire-arms-Mathematical Instruments, &c.

HAVING been thus circumstantial in defcribing the manners and customs of the Lesser Nimiquas, I shall now proceed to those of the Greater, as they are called, and not without reason, they being taller than the other Hottentot tribes though more slender made, which in the women gives them a singular advantage over the rest of the females in that country.

Less deep in colour than the Caffres, they have at the same time more pleasing features, because their nose is less flattened, and their cheeks less prominent. But their cold and unmeaning countenances, their phlegmatic

and indolent air, give them a particular character by which they are distinguished. But their women do not in any degree partake of this heavy disposition. Gay, lively, and much addicted to laughter, they might easily be mistaken for another race.

Their garment called a kross, except being longer, differs not at all in shape from the Hottentot cloak. Many of them use the skins of the hyena, the jackal, or the isatis, when they are lucky enough to procure a sufficiency to make a kross, and these they ornament with glass beads, and plates of copper, which they obtain from the Hottentots of the Colony.

Besides this distinction, they have another by no means disagreeable: viz. after using a rude kind of pomatum, that of scenting their hair with the powder of different odoriferous woods. Many of them tattoo their faces, arms, and even bodies. But the latter custom is not so prevalent among them, as among them, as among other people more to the North.

As to religion, divine worship, priests, temples, and the idea of an immortal soul, they are non-entities to them. On these subjects, like all the rest of the savages, their neighbours, they have not the slightest notion.

Vaillaint relates a very curious custom among these people, when they have any rivers to cross, and which, he says, like from arises solely many others, iguorance; and this is tying up the prepuce. This is performed with a thread of gut;

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and, as their idea of modesty differ from ours on certain points, they do it before their daughters without any scruple.

When he asked them the reason of this custom, they told him, like, true savages, that it was too close an opening by which the water might enter into their bodies. Yet, as a proof how extravagant and even contradictory the prejudices of ignorance are, the women, on such occasions, neither tie nor stop up any part of the body, whatever access it may appear to offer to the fluid element.

If these Nimiquas are deemed warlike, it is more in appearance, than in fact. Like other African nations, they use their assagays and poisoned arrows, their war-oxen, &c. And in one implement of war, they differ from all the rest. This is a large buckler, of the height of the person who bears it, behind which the bearer can completely conceal himself. But the Nimiqua is in reality pusillanimous and cowardly from the coldness of his disposition. So that only to utter the name of Houzouana before him is sufficient to make him tremble. This name is that of a neighbouring warlike nation, distinguished from other African nations by peculiar features.

But in spite of this coldness, the Nimiqua is not insensible to pleasure. He even seeks with avidity those, which, requiring but little exertion, are capable of agitating him and procuring argreeable sensations.

And hence, on an evening it is not uncustomary with them to collect round a fire, forty or fifty men and women, to tell stories, for hours together, while commonly the unfortunate hero of the tale is unexceptionably a hyæna, a lion, or a Houzouana.

Their musical instruments are the same as those of the other Hottentots.

The dance of the Nimiqua is cold, like himself, and so extremely defective in every appearance of cheerfulness, that were it not for the gaiety of the women, it would be indeed a custom more honoured in the breach than in the observance.

One of their favourite games is what they call the tiger and the lambs. It is nearly as follows:

An oblong square is traced on the ground, in which are made a certain number of holes, two or three inches deep, forming a sort of chess-table. The holes are made in ranks, side by side, but the number is not fixed, and they are mostly from twenty to forty.

To play, they take a certain number of pieces of sheep's-dung, hardened by drying, proportionate to the number of holes, and which represent lambs. Some of the holes also are called lambs, and into these are put balls. The holes that remain empty are called tigers. Perhaps they represent only different dens of the same animal, and the retreats or ambuscades which he occupies successively one after the

VOL. I.

other. The player begins by taking some lambs out of their holes, and putting them into other holes of the tiger. Perhaps this tiger has a regular movement, like some of our pieces at chess, and the art of the player consists in avoiding this movement, to save his lambs, and prevent them from being devoured.

There is another game, which, being much easier than this, is on that account the more dangerous, as the Nimiquas, fond of it to distraction, frequently risk their herds and all they possess. It considerably resembles our hustlecap. For this they make use of the seed of the mimosa, which resembles a bean. They take a number of these seeds, and cut some mark on one of their sides, which answers the same purpose to them that the head or the tail of a piece of money does to our gamblers, and, after they have hustled them some 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 sides uppermost, are most numerous.

As this game is happily contrived to please the indolent, because it does not fatigue them, and to engage the stupid, because it requires no capacity of thought, a neighbouring horde of Hottentots were so wonderfully delighted at their first acquaintance with it, that being a holiday, they did nothing else from morning till night; and many of them, after losing all they possessed, staked as their very last re