after a while to another plain, of which, like the last, the soil is so rich as to be quite impassable in the rainy season. Our next halt was near a wood, at a rain-pool called Saddler’s Pan.
After altering our course from north to north-west we came in the course of the following day to a dried up vain-pool, with a number of fan-palms adorning its banks. Westbeech subsequently told me that many most elegant trees of this kind had been felled by hunters and traders on the Gashuma Flat out of pure wantonness.
That evening we reached Schneeman’s Pan,a rain-pool at which Blockley had appointed that we should wait for him. I amused myself by making some inquiries about the Manansas who were in the place, ascertaining some particulars about their manners and customs, and picking up a few fragments of their language. Most of my information was obtained from one of them who had been taken south by a trader, and who had now hired himself to a farmer here, where he had taken the opportunity of learning Dutch, and by his help I made a list of 305 words and phrases in the dialect of the Manansas or Manandshas. The hunters nickname them Mashapatan.
One day after partaking of some round red-shelled beans I had some very decided symptoms of colic, and discovered that the colouring matter in the shells was injurious, and that the first water in which they were boiled ought to be thrown away; it was always quite violet. The natives, as I afterwards learnt, are particular to observe this precaution.
During our stay some of the Manansas brought us a lot of suet, which they wanted us to buy. When-
