289 
civilized Europe, which has long laid claim to the sole 
possession of these attributes. 
* The Caffres possess immense herds of black cattle, from 
the produce of which they derive the main part of their 
subsistence. On our expedition to the Quagga’s Plain, we 
fell in with several parties of them passing from one kraal to 
another. They indulged us with a taste of their sour milk, 
of which, though I, for one, gulped down a considerable 
draught, I was not much delighted with the flavour. They 
preserve it in leathern bags; and as these extraordinary 
vessels are never scalded, and but seldom emptied, the fer- 
mentation constantly going on within them partakes more 
of the putrefactive than of the acetous. In the art of 
cookery, the Caffres are about as far advanced as Homer's 
heroes were at the siege of Troy: they broil their beef- 
steak and carve it with the Assagay, holding one end in 
the left hand, and the other between their teeth. They never 
use salt; but it is alleged, that in lieu of it, they roll the 
Steak in -cow-dung before it is broiled. Notwithstanding 
high authority for the existence of a similar practice, I could 
not help doubting its prevalence in this country: tbe more so, 
as I never observed any of our visitors making use of this 
singular condiment; and I enquired of several persons who 
nad seen their manner of feeding in their own country, who 
invariably asserted the’ contrary. ` i PEE 
“ The Caffres practise circumcision, but how the ceremony. 
came to be adopted in such a remote corner of the world, it 
would be almost idle even to guess; though a late intelligent 
traveller has endeavoured to trace it to the coasting voyage of a 
ttibe of Bedouins from the deserts of Arabia. The same author 
has detected, in the Boschmen, the genuine descendants of the 
Pigmies, expelled by the Cranes from the banks of the 
iles and he has been equally felicitous in clearing up the 
genealogy of the Hottentot race, which he unhesitatingly — 
identifies with the Chinese. The early migrations of the human | 
Tace have afforded ample scope for antiquarian dispute; and 
much learning has been fruitlessly expended in elucidating 
what must remain for ever obscure." 
VOL, 1, l U 
