THE NATIVE AND AGRICULTURE. 421 



This region is healthy and suitable for cattle, and the "high veld" 

 and Gordona are eminently suitable not only for horned stock but 

 for sheep and goats. 



The Bechuana seem to have obtained their sheep from the 

 Korana. The domestic sheep found by the Dutch settlers among 

 the flocks of the nomadic Hottentots were most likely an indigenous 

 breed, for with their lop-ears and long fat tail they differed much 

 from the fat-rumped, black-headed Persian or Hejaz breed found 

 in North Africa and the Sudan. A good slaughter animal, it has 

 been crossed with the merino for the sake of the wool, and this 

 strain proves itself a valuable animal well suited to its habitat, 

 equally welcome to the shearing house or the butcher's pen. 



The Bechuana or Briqna, as the Hottentots used to call them*, 

 were essentially a nation of goat-herds, but the goat they domesti- 

 cated was introduced from the East if philological evidence may 

 be trusted. 



The Bechuana probably brought with them from their cradle 

 in Northern Africa the indigenous African ox of which the Mima 

 or Callal is the type; a large, long-legged, slab-sided beast with 

 light hind-quarters and enormous horns, but lacking a hump — a 

 good forager, a good trekker, but a poor milker. This animal 

 closely akin to the Hottentot breed (also probably of Northern 

 origin) is found in Abyssinia, Uganda, the high plateaux between 

 the Nyanzas and Tanganyika and in Damaraland. It is the 

 dominant type from the Zambezi to Table Bay. The Afrikander 

 ox of the Boers is of the same breed, crossed two centuries ago 

 with the Spanish or Portuguese ox, and in more recent times with 

 the Friesland of Germany and Holland. The small hump borne 

 by the bull might point to a cross with the East Coast humped 

 breed or zebu. It is not, however, a true hump or flesh protuber- 

 ance, but "merely a muscular enlargement of the wither." 1 "For 

 a general breed it would be difficult to surpass this hardy, long- 

 horned breed which has successfully adapted itself to its environ- 

 ment." 2 If it is true that "the production of oxen for transport 

 work is practically dead," 3 still this ox in its own country fur- 

 nishes better beef than many imported beasts, and crossed with the 

 Friesland yields a very fair supply of milk. 



Some of the Bechuana tribes, such as the Bakolong and 

 Bakwena, have displayed moderate skill, though much inferior to 

 the Oriental races, in such industries as wood carving, smithy 



* The Kora-Hottentot word Briqua, Biri-na applied to the Batlapin 

 means "goat people." The word 7)'///, Sech. puri, Makua, puri Yao. 

 Swahili, and mbvzi in nearly all Eastern Bantu dialects is traceable 

 to a Persian or Arab origin, buz. The Zulu-Kaffir has two terms for 

 p;oat, mhuzi and impongo (he goat); the latter found also in Thonga. 

 Tonga. Rozwe dialects may have denoted an indigenous breed. In 

 Zulu-Kaffir the term is confined to "he-goat." 



1 R. W. AVallace, "Farming Industries of Cape Colony," p. 254. 



2 Owen Thomas, "Agricultural and Pastoral Prospects of South 

 Africa." pp. 201-3. 



:i C. G. Lee, address, May 15, 1907, as President of Agricultural 

 Union. 



