## CHAPTER XI.

JOURNEY OVER THE KARRO.

As soon as the oxen were yoked, we immediately began to enter the Pass. At about midway, we found a party with three waggons at outspan, which proved to be the same Frans Van der Merwe, of whom my two teams of oxen were bought. We halted a minute, to enquire if we might still expect to find water enough in the Karro for our cattle, and were rejoiced at hearing that this indispensable requisite was not quite dried up. He had been residing at his cattle-station in the Karro during the season of the rains, and was now removing, with all his family, to his dwelling in the Bokkeveld.

The number of *Karrée-trees* growing along the course of the rivulet, give a more pleasing appearance to the Pass. Though the road was generally level, this defile occupied us nearly an hour before we cleared the mountains. The *Bokkeveld-Karró* then opened upon us, and we beheld an immense plain, unbroken by hill or eminence, stretching before us in every direction, as far as the eye could discern. (See the above *Vignette*). Along the northern and eastern horizon, is seen a range of distant blue mountains, probably those of the *Roggeveld* (Rye-land).

Our road was in some parts sandy, and in others stony. We con-

14 JULY, 1811. DOORN RIVER.—ROADS OF THE KARRO.

tinued travelling long after it became dark; but the dry atmosphere of the Karro was so exceedingly clear from vapors, that an infinite multitude of sparkling stars enabled us easily to see our way, till we reached the *Kleine Doorn* (Little Thorn) river, where we halted for the night. Several graziers were at this time stationed here, with their waggons, cattle, and families.

15th. On the next morning they paid us a visit; and if they derived any news or information from us, it was more than we did from them; so very uninformed, or so little communicative, did this party seem to be. Yet, in these wilds, but little used to converse with strangers, it is possible that their taciturnity might be the effect rather of timidity than of natural dullness.

The *Doorn-rivier* takes its name from the trees of *Doorn-boom* that grow on its banks: a name equally applicable to every other river in the Karro, and, indeed, to the greatest number of the rivers, not only in the colony, but in the whole of Southern Africa, as far as I have been. All the rivers crossed in the following part of my journey, to its farthest extent northward, take a westerly course, and discharge their waters into the Southern Atlantic Ocean.

In the afternoon we departed from *Little Thorn-river*, having warm and exceedingly agreeable weather. The excellence of the roads, in many parts of these plains, cannot be surpassed: a clayey soil, washed level and smooth by frequent thunder-showers, and afterwards hardened and baked by the heat of the sun, forms a strong floor, on which the wheels of a waggon leave little or no impression; and on which eight oxen are found to be a sufficient team. These African roads are, however, nothing more than the space cleared from shrubs and plants, by the passing and repassing of waggons. Those of the Karro are mostly worn a few inches below the general surface of the plain. In one part of this day's journey, the soil was a very deep, loose, yellow sand, in which we were much annoyed by dust.

I now gathered, for the first time, specimens of a very extraordinary grass.* Its panicle of flowers formed a bunch of

* Poa spinosa.

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A. Hottentot Kraal, on the banks of the Egea.

1811.

HOTTENTOT KRAAL.

325

with hillocks of whitish sand, considerably increased that airy effect. Each tree was composed of a great number of stems; but very rarely of a single trunk. Many were decaying from age, and their dead branches, half cracked off, dropped their tops to the ground. This singular manner of decaying, was almost peculiar to the acacias, and is, perhaps, occasioned by the greater durability of the bark, while the wood is soon destroyed by insects. On examining these dead branches, I found scarcely one that was not bored through, in every direction, by insects, chiefly of the genera *Apate* and *Bostrichus*.

This was the first genuine *Hottentot kraal* which I had seen; and the view not only being on that account interesting, but the scenery extremely picturesque, I made a drawing of it. *

These mats, and the form of hut here represented, more resembling an inverted basket than a building, are the same which have been in use among all the various tribes of Hottentots, from time immemorial; and are, I believe, quite peculiar to this remarkable and distinct race of men. Such huts have their convenience for the Hottentot's mode of life; they may be taken to pieces in an hour, and packed on the back of a couple of oxen, together with all their utensils and young children, and transported with ease and expedition to any part of the country to which they may find it agreeable or necessary to remove, either for water or for pasture for their cattle; or for the purpose of avoiding inimical neighbours. Nor is it likely, so long as they continue to lead a pastoral life, and are free to roam wherever they please, that they will voluntarily

* Plate 7. is a reduced copy of this drawing. In the fore-ground, a *Hottentot woman* is employed in putting up one of the *mat-houses*. On the left are three *sheep* of the South-African breed, the large tails of which consist of pure fat. Rolls of *matting*, the materials of the house, with various *utensils* are seen on the ground; a *wooden-box*, a *bambus*, a *Hottentot hatchet*, and a bundle of tanned *sheep-skin*. On the right, a large *kaross* hangs over a rail; and by it, two *calabashes*. Several *men* are idly sauntering about, indulging in their greatest enjoyment, *smoking*: one is *milking* the cows, while his companion, with a long whip, keeps the herd from straying away. All the trees in this view, are *Acacias*, and the soil is a whitish sand thrown into hillocks by the force of the waters of the river, at the time of extraordinary inundations.

EXTENT OF THE TOWN.—PLAN OF THE DWELLINGS.

Section & Plan of a Backapin House?

Designed & Coloured after the original Drawing made by W.Durham, Jno.

Published by Lippincott, R. C. May 1, 1825.

The walk from the southern extremity of the town, to the northern, occupied half an hour, which may be taken for a distance of at least a mile and a half; and, in an eastward direction, the length was above two miles. The town, on approaching it from any part of the surrounding plains, appeared to be formed of an innumerable collection of houses contiguous to each other; and it was only from a considerable eminence that the great quantity of intervening vacant space and its irregular plan, were very observable in a single view.

The business of building the houses, as well as that of keeping them in order, is a duty which, in this nation, custom has allotted to the women only; and I was always assured, that every part was the work of their hands; although I never had any opportunity of seeing the construction of one of these buildings in its progress.

The spot of ground appropriated to each dwelling was in general between forty and sixty feet in diameter, and in every case was enclosed by a strong fence. This area was circular, or as near to that form, as it could be conveniently made: it was sometimes, however, on the plan represented by the engraving at the end of the chapter, or of two elliptical or circular areas conjoined. This engraving, and the one at page 511, together with the 9th Plate*, will render the following descriptions more easily intelligible, and supply many of the smaller particulars which have, for this reason, been omitted in the text.

The outer fence never exceeded seven feet in height, nor was it less than four and a half: in the better houses it was most commonly about six feet high; and at the bottom, the thickness was two feet and a half, gradually diminishing to nine or twelve inches at the top. It was constructed of straight twigs and small branches, placed

* Plate 9 is a plan, with a geometrical elevation, or rather section, of a Bachapin dwelling. In order to show its structure, it is here represented as cut through the middle, in a direction from the great corn-jar to the side of the door-way in the outer fence. In the ground-plan, A is the veranda; B, the outer room; C, the inner, or central room; D, the storeroom; E, the corn-house; F, F, corn-jars; G, the servants' house; H, the fire-place; and I, the outer fence.

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