Identifier: uncivilizedraces00wood (find matches)
Title: The uncivilized races of men in all countries of the world : being a comprehensive account of their manners and customs, and of their physical, social, mental, moral and religious characteristics
Year: 1878 (1870s)
Authors: Wood, J. G. (John George), 1827-1889
Subjects: Ethnology Manners and customs Savages
Publisher: Hartford : J. B. Burr and company
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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e Hottentot substitutesthe skins of sheep or oxen for mats, but thelatter are most generally in use — probablybecause the skins are too valuable as arti-cles of apparel to be employed for themere exterior of a house. Owing to themanner in which these huts are made, thejare more impervious to weather than thoseof the Kaffir, and, as a necessary conse-quence, are less capable of letting out thesmoke. An European can, on a pinch,exist in a Kaffir hut, luit to do so in a skin-covered Hottentot house is almost impossi-ble. To a restless and ever-moving peoplelike the Hottentots, these mats are absolutenecessaries. A hut of ordinary size can bepacked on the back of an ox, while anotherox can carry all the simple furniture andutensils, together with the young children;and thus a whole family can be moved at afew minutes notice, without much incon-venience. The huts are, in fact, nothingbut tents made of mats, and resemble, inmany particulars, the camel-hair tents ofthe equally nomad Arabs.
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HOTTENTOT KKAAL. (See page 228.) (229) NOMiVD HABITS OF THE HOTTENTOT. 231 No one — not even the owner — knows,on seeing a Hottentot hut, whether he willfind it in the same place after a few hourshave elapsed. Sometimes, a Hottentot wifewill set to work, pull the hut to pieces, but,instead of packing it on the back of an ox,rebuild her liouse within twenty or thirtyyards of its original locality. The object ofthis strange conduct is to rid herself andfamily from the fleas, which, together withother vermin, swarm exceedingly in a Hot-tentots house, and drive the inmates toescape in the manner related. These un-pleasant parasites are generally attacked inthe early morning, the mantles, sheepskins,mats, and other articles, being taken out-side the hut, and beaten soundly with astick. Sufficient, however, remain to per-petuate the breed, and at last, as lias beenseen, they force the Hottentot fairly to re-move the house altogether. As to the Hottentots themselves, theysutler but compa

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