DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9696#0426
322
FROM SURATT TO ENGLAND [REL. XIX
or noe beards, being also without any Religion, Lawe,
Arte or Civility that wee could see. It beinge now neere
midwinter heere, each of them had a kinde of Cloake or
Mantle, made comonly of Seales Skinns or other, sowed
together. Some have close Capps of the same, Also
Shooes which have only the Soles, from which come two
stringes, one over their Toes, and the other over their
heeles. This mantle, when they goe abroad, they cast
over their heads and shoulders, which reacheth downe to
their Buttocks1. There Armes are Bowes, arrowes and
Darts, each of them carryeing a Bagg made of a whole
Skinn stripped off, as of a litle Calfe, deere, Seale, etts.
wherein they carry what they have, as their sticks, where-
with they kindle fire, their shooes, peeces of rawe meate,
Gutts or anything els they make accompt of'-. They
rubb the end of one of the said Sticks into a hole
made in the other, and soe kindle fire when they list.
This they did before us. Before their privities they
hang a peece of skinn, as broad and as longe as a mans
hand, with the Furr upper most. This hangeth loose over
like a Penthowse. They have but one stone each; the
other is broken when they are litle Children ; the reason
wee could not learne. Theis that are hereabouts (by
reporte) are of a baser Sort and live in feare of others
called Saldania men, whoe are further in the Land. They
eate the skinns of beasts or fowle, only sindgeing the haire
and feathers a litle, halfe scortched, Also the Intralls,
small gutts and garbage, excrament and all, only quarter
broiled or warmed in the fire. Att our Anchoringe, 4 or 5
came aboard in the first boates, unto whome our Captaine
1 Here is a marginal note—"With this they cover themselves when
they sleepe."
- For other seventeenth century descriptions of the inhabitants of
the Cape, see Pyrard, ed. Gray, I. 38; Jourdain, ed. Foster, pp. 13 ff.;
Roe, ed. Foster, pp. 11—12; Herbert, pp. 16—17; Dellon (supple-
ment), p. 14 : Tavernier, ed. Ball, II. 392—395 ; Ovington, pp. 489 ff.
FROM SURATT TO ENGLAND [REL. XIX
or noe beards, being also without any Religion, Lawe,
Arte or Civility that wee could see. It beinge now neere
midwinter heere, each of them had a kinde of Cloake or
Mantle, made comonly of Seales Skinns or other, sowed
together. Some have close Capps of the same, Also
Shooes which have only the Soles, from which come two
stringes, one over their Toes, and the other over their
heeles. This mantle, when they goe abroad, they cast
over their heads and shoulders, which reacheth downe to
their Buttocks1. There Armes are Bowes, arrowes and
Darts, each of them carryeing a Bagg made of a whole
Skinn stripped off, as of a litle Calfe, deere, Seale, etts.
wherein they carry what they have, as their sticks, where-
with they kindle fire, their shooes, peeces of rawe meate,
Gutts or anything els they make accompt of'-. They
rubb the end of one of the said Sticks into a hole
made in the other, and soe kindle fire when they list.
This they did before us. Before their privities they
hang a peece of skinn, as broad and as longe as a mans
hand, with the Furr upper most. This hangeth loose over
like a Penthowse. They have but one stone each; the
other is broken when they are litle Children ; the reason
wee could not learne. Theis that are hereabouts (by
reporte) are of a baser Sort and live in feare of others
called Saldania men, whoe are further in the Land. They
eate the skinns of beasts or fowle, only sindgeing the haire
and feathers a litle, halfe scortched, Also the Intralls,
small gutts and garbage, excrament and all, only quarter
broiled or warmed in the fire. Att our Anchoringe, 4 or 5
came aboard in the first boates, unto whome our Captaine
1 Here is a marginal note—"With this they cover themselves when
they sleepe."
- For other seventeenth century descriptions of the inhabitants of
the Cape, see Pyrard, ed. Gray, I. 38; Jourdain, ed. Foster, pp. 13 ff.;
Roe, ed. Foster, pp. 11—12; Herbert, pp. 16—17; Dellon (supple-
ment), p. 14 : Tavernier, ed. Ball, II. 392—395 ; Ovington, pp. 489 ff.