a nation in south Africa, who had never seen a white man till 1785, that they were visited by M. Vaillant. Intimation had been given of his approach by some of the tribes through whose country he had previously passed; and every thing that had been said of his colour, his fustes, and his equipage, bore the character of the most enthusiastic exaggeration. The curiosity of the people was wound up to the highest pitch; and as soon as they saw his company at a distance, the whole horde quitted the kraal, and ran with eagerness to meet him. Not being able to believe their eyes in regard to what they saw, they endeavoured to obtain more satisfaction by touching him. They felt his hair, hands, and almost every part of his body. His beard, above all, astonished them to an inconceivable degree. More than thirty persons came in succession, and half unbuttoned his clothes. They all imagined him to be a hairy animal; supposed, without doubt, that his body was covered with hair as long as that on his chin; but finding this not to be the case, they were astonished, and confessed, with the openness of savages, that they had never seen the like in any man of their country. The little children, terrified at his appearance, hid themselves behind their mothers. When he attempted to lay hold of any of them, in order to caress them, they sent forth loud cries, as a child would do in Europe who should see a negro for the first time.
The grown up people, however, were soon reconciled to his appearance, and even the children were bribed by small bits of sugar candy. The chief of the horde showed him every mark of attachment. He was a man advanced in life, and of a majestic figure. He wore a long mantle, which hung from his shoulders to the ground, and which, formed of four jackal skins joined together, was bordered at the sides with that of a hyena. His left hand wanted two joints of the little finger, which, he said, were amputated in his infancy to cure him of a severe illness.
This custom of savages, who, to relieve a man from pain, add new sufferings to his evils, affords a vast field for reflection. Mr Paterson, another African traveller, tells us, that he observed instances of the same practice among a horde at the mouth of Orange river; which is not improbable. However absurd a custom may be, savage tribes, when they are neighbours, may borrow it from each other; but that it should be common among the islanders of the South Sea, who, since their country was first inhabited, had never seen strangers before Cook and Bougainville, is truly astonishing. Our author was very desirous of interrogating minutely the people of the horde on this subject. He wished also to propose some questions to them respecting other customs which appeared singular; but difficulties increased the more he advanced into the country. The Kabobiquas spoke a particular language; and this dialect, though accompanied accompanied with the clapping noise of the Hottentots, was understood only by the Koragas, who, on account of their vicinity, kept up some intercourse with them. The case was the same with the language of the Koragas, in regard to their neighbours the Nimiquas; and nothing reached our author's ear till it had passed through four different mouths. The consequence was, that when he asked any thing, the answer had frequently no relation to the question; and for this inconvenience no remedy could be found.
The same desire for trinkets to ornament their dress prevailed among the Kabobiquas as among the other hordes which Vaillant had visited; and in one day he purchased twenty oxen for things of that kind of no value. The chief, however, had let his affections on a razor; and just when our author and he were treating about it, a shot was fired near them, which was instantly followed by the most frightful cries. "Rushing instantly from my tent (says M. Vaillant) to enquire what was the cause of this noise, I saw a Kabobiqua flying as fast as he could from one of my hunters, while, at the distance of a hundred paces farther, three men were making the most lamentable clamour, and near them was a young girl lying on the ground. I made a signal to my hunter to approach me; but the report of the shot, and the howling of the three men, had already spread alarm throughout the horde. Some cried out treachery; others ran to their arms; and I now imagined that I was about to be massacred, with my whole company, and that I should be obliged to arm them in my defence. My situation was the more critical, as neither I, nor any person in the kraal, knew what was the cause of this confusion; and if I had known, how could I have explained it?
"Under this embarrassment, I took the chief by the hand, and advanced with him towards the horde. Fear was painted in his countenance; tears began to drop from his eyes; and he spoke to me with great vivacity. He imagined, no doubt, that he was betrayed. He complained to me, and accused my people of perfidy; yet he readily followed me.
"As I was without arms, and presented myself with the chief, I was received with confidence, and my appearance seemed, in some measure, to calm their perturbation. My people, who had seen me direct my course towards the kraal, hastened thither after me, to protect me; and their number overawed the multitude. At length the whole mystery was cleared up, and we learned what had occasioned the tumult.
"A Kabobiqua having met one of my hunters, who was returning with his fowls, wished to examine it; and begged him to show it to him. In handling it, however, he accidentally touched the trigger; it instantly went off; and the savage, frightened by the unexpected explosion, threw down the fowl, and ran away as fast as he could.
"At that time, three men of the horde and a young girl happened unluckily to be standing, at the distance of a hundred paces, in the direction of the piece. The latter received a single grain of shot in the cheek; and the others a few grains in the legs and thighs. The author of the misfortune confirmed this explanation; tranquillity was soon restored; the savages deposited their arms; and I was surrounded only by friends as before.
"Nothing remained but to enquire into the state of the wounded, and to give them every assistance in my power. Without loss of time, therefore, I repaired, still accompanied by the chief, to the place where they were. By the way we met the young girl, who was returning from the kraal, bathed in tears. The cause of her uneasiness was a grain of lead, which had, however, penetrated so little, that I forced it out by only pressing the part with my fingers. With regard to the three men, they lay rolling on the ground, howling in a most frightful manner, and exhibiting every symptom of despair.
"I was astonished at their consternation, and could not conceive how men injured, to sufferings should be so much affected by a few small punctures, the pain of which could have scarcely drawn tears from an infant. They at length told me the cause of their wailing. These savages, accustomed to poison their arrows, imagined that I had in like manner poisoned the lead with which they were wounded. They had, therefore, given themselves up as lost, and expected in a few moments to expire."
It was with great difficulty that our author could convince them that they had nothing to fear. He showed them in the flesh of his own leg a dozen of shots of lead; but they were not satisfied till one of the most intelligent of his Hottentots, taking from his shot bag a few grains of lead, and showing them to the three men, immediately swallowed them. This conclusive argument produced the desired effect. The cries of the wounded men instantly ceased; serenity again appeared in their faces; and their wounds were no more mentioned.
The Kabobiquas have neither the flat nose nor plump cheeks of the Hottentots. Their skin also has not that bastard colour, which, being neither black nor white, renders them odious to both races; nor do they befoul their bodies with those disgusting fat substances, on account of which one cannot approach them without being bedaubed with their filth, or acquiring an offensive smell. In stature they are as tall as the Caffres, and their colour is equally black. Their hair, which is exceedingly short, and much curled, is ornamented with small copper buttons, arranged with great art and symmetry. Instead of that apron made of a jackal's skin, employed by the Hottentot to cover what modesty bids him conceal, the Kabobiquas use a round piece of leather, the edge of which is ornamented with a small indented circle of copper, and which is divided into different compartments by rows of glass beads of various colours, all proceeding from the centre, and diverging towards the circumference, like the rays in our images of the sun.
This kind of veil is made fast to the groin by means of a girdle; but as it is only four inches in diameter, as it is deranged by the smallest movement, and as they give themselves little uneasiness respecting such accidents, it is very ill suited to the purpose for which it is applied. During the great heats, this small and almost useless apron is the only covering on their bodies. Its being so readily displaced, enabled our author to ascertain that they do not practice circumcision; but it seemed to show also, that, in regard to modesty, their ideas are very different from ours.
Though they go thus almost entirely naked, their manners, instead of being licentious, are remarkably chaste. No females can be more prudent or more reserved than their women; and whether from refinement of coquetry, or the effect of prudence, they do not tattoo their faces like their husbands and fathers. They do not even follow their example in ornamenting their hair with copper buttons; and they always go bare-legged, though most of them wear sandals.
Their dress consists of an apron that reaches only half down the thigh; a krof which, passing under the arm-pits, is tied on the breast; and a long mantle like that of the men. The mantle is made of flocks not deprived of the hair; and the krofs of tanned leather, prepared like that used for gloves in Europe.
With regard to glass beads, they wear them as bracelets. They form them into necklaces, which descend in different rows to the pit of the stomach; and they suspend from their girdles several strings of them, which fall down their thighs below the apron.
These ornaments being very durable, the habit of seeing them renders the women almost indifferent to the pleasure of possessing them. Those they procured from our author afforded at first great satisfaction, on account of their novelty. But when he showed them scissors and needles, they gave the preference to these articles; and this choice does honour to the good sense of the Kabobiqua ladies. Like their chief, they set a higher value on utility than ornament.
Before our author's arrival among them, the Kabobiquas were acquainted with the use of tobacco through the means of some of the tribes more contiguous to the Cape. It was, however, a luxury which they could seldom enjoy; and so indifferent were they about it, that if it were not brought to them, they would not go a step to procure it. This indifference, about an article which is eagerly sought for by all the tribes of Hottentots, seemed to show that there are traits in the character of the Kabobiquas which distinguish them from their southern neighbours. The case was the same as to strong liquors, on which they set no great value; and though there were among them some few individuals disposed to relish them, the greater number absolutely refused them.
"If the contents of my flask (says Vaillant) gave them little satisfaction, they were, however, much captivated with the flasks themselves. These transparent bottles excited their admiration in the highest degree. They called them solid water; for, notwithstanding the heat of the climate, these savages had seen ice on the summits of the mountains by which they are surrounded; and they entertained no doubt that the glass of my flask was water, which I had rendered solid by magic, and which I prevented their fires from melting. As it was impossible for me to explain this matter, I did not attempt to undeceive them; and besides, with what advantage would it have been attended? I suffered them, therefore, to continue in their error, and contented myself with conferring on them an obligation, by giving them all the empty bottles for which I had no use.
"On their part, they vied with each other in showering their generosity towards me; and I must indeed allow, that I never saw a nation so disinterested. Every night they brought to my camp a considerable quantity of milk; and they never came to spend the evening with my people, without bringing some sheep to regale them. I have seen many of them give away gratuitously, and without receiving any thing in return, part of their herds and their flocks; and, when I departed, there were many persons in my caravan who possessed both sheep and oxen, which they had received as a pure gift."
With this benevolent disposition, the Kabobiquas have also a martial character. Their weapons are poisoned arrows, and a lance with a long iron point, but different from the assegai of the Hottentots. In battle, their defensive armour consists of two bucklers; the one of a size sufficient to cover the whole body of the combatant; the other much smaller. They are both made of skins exceedingly thick, and proof against arrows.
The courage which the Kabobiquas display in combat is particularly exercised in their hunting excursions, and, above all, against carnivorous animals. Intrepid, however, as it may be to attack the elephant and the rhinoceros, these species of animals are not objects of their vengeance; because, living upon grass and herbs, they have nothing to apprehend from them, either for themselves or their cattle. But the tiger, lion, hyena, and panther, being enemies of a different kind, they declare against them implacable war, and pursue them without remission.
Of the spoils of these destructive animals they form their bucklers, girdles, sandals, krofs, mantles, &c. They consider it as a mark of honour to wear them; and they set a much higher value upon them than upon the skin of the rhinoceros or of the elephant. If they sometimes hunt the latter, it is only as objects of food; and they employ to catch them those concealed pits, which are the usual snares of the Hottentots: but this method, which requires both patience and labour, is very little suited to a people so brave and enterprising as the Kabobiquas.
As they possess so bold and resolute a character, one might be induced to believe that they are ferocious and intractable. Among all the African nations, however, which our author visited, he never knew one that so much practised obedience and subordination.
The chief here is not, as in other tribes, a principal among his equals; he is a sovereign in the midst of his subjects, a master surrounded by his slaves. A word, a gesture, or a look, is sufficient to procure him obedience. Whatever be his orders, they are never contradicted; and the case is the same in every particular family. What the chief is to the horde, the father is to his children. His commands are absolute; and he exercises regal power at home, while he obeys elsewhere.
Though the tribe was very numerous, the wisdom with which it was ruled, and the good order that prevailed, announced, in the man by whom it was governed, an intelligence superior to that of all the savages our author had before seen; for he had not then visited the Houzonanas. The habitation of this chief was fitted to his supreme dignity. It was, indeed, a hut only, like those of his subjects, and, like them, covered with the skins of animals; but it was much larger, as well as more elevated; and around it were six others, occupied by his family, and destined for them alone.
The natural dryness of the country inhabited by the Kabobiquas obliges them to dig wells, for their own use as well as for their cattle; but as the same cause often often dries up these wells, they are then forced to remove, and to seek elsewhere a foil more abundant in springs; for Fith-River, though considerable in the rainy season, is often, during the great heats, entirely deficient of water.
The long journeys which these too frequent emigrations compel them to undertake, and the intercourse which they thence have with other nations, must necessarily infuse them with ideas unknown to the settled tribes; and it would not be unnatural to suppose, that to this extension of ideas are they indebted for that superiority of intelligence which elevates them above their neighbours.
Of the religion of the Kabobiquas, our author talks very inconsistently, and like a true philosopher of the French school. "Of all the African nations (says he), they are the only people among whom I found any idea, however confused a one, of the existence of a Deity. I do not know whether it be from their own reflection, or the communications of other tribes, that they have acquired this sublime knowledge, which would alone bring them near to a level with polished nations; but they believe, as far as I have been able to learn from my people, that beyond the stars there exists a Supreme Being, who made and who governs all things. I must however observe, that on this subject their ideas are vague, barren, and unproductive. They have no conception of the future existence of the soul, or of rewards and punishments in another life; in short, they have neither worship, sacrifices, ceremonies, nor priests, and are total strangers to what we call religion."
This is impossible. A people believing in a Supreme Being, who made and who governs all things, may indeed be without sacrifices, ceremonies, and priests; but such a people cannot avoid wishing, that the Being who governs all things may protect them. Such a wish is a prayer; and surely he who prays is no stranger to religion. M. Vaillant places the country of the Kabobiquas between 23° and 25° S. Lat. and 16° 25' and 19° 25' Lon. east from Paris.