his legs, and the native dogs within pistol-shot, before they perceived their danger.  Hence he was enabled to shoot one of them.  The native cat is the only other carnivorous animal we possess; but its depredations extend no farther than the poultry-yard.  It is small and long-bodied, with a long tail, claws like a common cat, a nose like a pig, striped down the sides with brown and black, and dotted over with white spots.  It climbs trees and preys on birds while they sleep, being a night animal.

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FARM-HOUSES ON THE SNEEUWBERG MOUNTAINS.

The farm-houses in the Sneeuwberg, and in most of the colder districts of the colony, are usually of the following description:—­The house resembles a large barn divided into two or three apartments.  One of these is the kitchen, which also serves for the sitting and eating apartment.  In the others the family sleep; while, in the outer one already mentioned, visiters and travellers are accommodated with a rush mat, a feather bed, and a coverlet spread on the clay floor.  In this situation I have often enjoyed, after a fatiguing day’s ride, the most balmy repose; while a swarthy train of slaves and Hottentots were moving round the embers of the fire, wrapped in their sheepskin mantles, and dogs, cats, and fowls were trampling over my body.  The more wealthy and long settled families, however, usually have the kitchen separate from their sitting-room.  In such houses curtained beds, and other articles of decent furniture, are not unfrequently found; but the poorer classes are content with a few thong-bottomed chairs and stools, two or three wagon-chests, and a couple of deal tables.  At one of the latter sits the mistress of the house, with a tea-urn and a chafing-dish before her, dealing out every now and then tea-water, or coffee, and elevating her sharp shrill voice occasionally to keep the dilatory slaves and Hottentots at their duty.  In this same apartment is also invariably to be seen the carcass of a sheep killed in the morning, and hung up under the eye of the mistress, to be served out frugally for the day’s provision as it may be required.  The houses, being without any ceiling, are open to the thatch; and the rafters are generally hung full of the ears of Indian corn, leaves or rolls of tobacco, slices of dried meat, called bill tongue, &c.  The last is a sort of ham from the muscular part of the thigh of the ox, or the larger species of antelopes; it is very convenient for carrying on journeys, and is found in the boor’s houses in every part of the colony.  It is cut into very thin slices, and eaten with bread and butter, or with bread and the melted fat of the sheep’s tail, which is a common substitute for butter; either way it is no contemptible dish when one is a little hungry, and many a time I have heartily enjoyed it.