450 STREICGIdfÍ ANO WÈAEItESS ÓF TIUMAN REASOt. far above the moon. But it does net appear, that they have any institution of worship directly regarding the supreme God. I never saw, or could hear, that any one of them paid any act of devotion immediately to him. I have talked to them roundly on this head, and endeavoured to make them sensible of the folly and absurdityof neglecting his worship, while they worship what they call gods that are inferior and dependent on him s but they will rarely reason upon the matter, or attend to any thing that is said upon it. The most sensible of them, when they are in humour to answer on this head, will tell you the following very remarkable matter : That their first parents so grievously sinned and offended against the supreme God, that he cursed them and all their posteritywith hardnessof heart; so that they know little of /tint, and have still less inclination to serve him. The reader without doubt, will be astonished to hear such a tradition as this at the Cape of Good-Hope, which seems to relate to the curse of Adam, or Ham : I assure him, the- Hottentots have such a tradition. Forsaking the worship of the true God, though they ac. knowledge his being, and some of hisattributes ; the Hottentots adore the moon as an inferior and visible god: They suppose the moon has- the disposal of the weather, and invoke her for such weather as they want. They assemble for the celebration of her worship at the full and new moon constantly ; no incle- mency of the weather prevents them. Br shouting, screaming, singing, jumping, stamping, dancing, prostration on the ground., clapping of hands, and an unintelligible jargon, lie all their for- malities of the worship of the moon ; and in such expressions as these, I salute you ; you are welcome ; grant us fodder for our cattle, and milk in abundance. In rounds of these words and actions they continue the whole night, till pretty far of the next day. The Hottentots likewise adore, as s benign deity, a certain insect peculiar it is said, totheHottentot countries. This animal is of the dimensions of a child's little finger } the back green, the belly specked with white and red. It is provided with two wings, and on its head two horns. To this little winged deity, whenever they set sight upon it, they render the highest tokens of veneration. And if it honours, forsooth, a villagewith a visit, the inhabitants assemble about it in transports, of devotion, as if the Lord of the universe was among them.- They sing and dance round it troop after troop, while it stays in the highest ex- tasy ; throwing to it the powder of an herb they call Buchu, our botanists call it Spirtea. They cover at the same time, the. whole'. area of the village, the topsof the cots; and every thing without doors, with the samepowder. They likewise kill two fat sheep as a thank-offering for this high honour. And it is impossible to
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=