422 THE NATIVE AND AGRICULTURE. 



work, basket ware and pottery, while others carried their rude 

 manufactures round from tribe to tribe as traders and pedlers; but 

 in this respect they showed less of commercial spirit than the Bantu 

 living on the banks of the great Congo and its river system. In 

 the former days of plenteous rainfall grain-growing was one of 

 the chief means of subsistence among the Bechuana, only checked 

 by the extensive ravages into the rich fields of millet and sorghum 

 of the hippopotami who then lurked in the zeekoe gats of the 

 Kuruman and Marikwa. The frequent or prolonged droughts now 

 restrict the Natives to such grain crops as Kaffir-corn and mealies 

 (maize), the former a crop requiring repeated weeding and 

 thinning. 1 The latter is a comparatively recent introduction wel- 

 comed as immune to a great extent from the voracity of finches 

 and other graminivorous birds. In localities favourable to agri- 

 culture the Natives flock together, building their kgatlas and 

 kraals into large "Stads" (Shoshong, Koloberg, Palapye), con- 

 taining a population of many thousands. Here some tribes 

 (e.g., the BaNguaketse) store their grain in enormous earthen 

 jars, differing in this respect from the Kaffirs, who bury the season's 

 grain in underground silos beneath the cattle-kraal. Failure of 

 crops has, however, often compelled the unlucky grain-grower to 

 rely for subsistence on his cattle depastured on the sunburnt veld, 

 "arida nutrix leonum." 2 



On the whole, although the Bechuana doubtless employ much 

 of their time in supervising their Bushmen cattle-herds, and in 

 visiting their cattle-posts, they may fairly be described as an 

 agricultural people. According to the schedule to the Native 

 Lands Act of 1913, the total extent of land in the Union on which 

 they are now located as agriculturists and pastoralists is about 

 2 J millions Cape morgen, of which the Bechuana occupy about 

 1J95,316 and the Basuto about 1,315,889 morgen. 3 



In Zululand the Government holds some two million morgen 4 

 reserved for the use of the Natives. Of this, however, they cul- 

 tivate little more than two-thirds by growing maize, Kaffir-corn, 

 and pumpkins. A large extent of the country is uninhabitable, 

 being marshy and covered with rank herbage ; that on the hill- 

 sides is of poor quality for agriculture."' The Province of Natal, 

 together with that portion of the Cape Province known as the 

 Transkeian Territories, forms a succession of grass-covered terraces 

 ranging from the sea to the foothills of the Drakensberg; and the 

 country is well adapted for stock-raising. The Zulu are almost 

 entirely pastoral; their ideas, language and occupation exclusivelv 

 bucolic. According to Mr. Owen Thomas the Natal Kaffir "is a 



1 Arbousset, "Narrative and Explanatory Tour," p. 64. 



2 In former days lions were not only as fierce and cunning as the 

 "Man-eaters of Tsavo," but so numerous as to compel powerful 

 Bechuana trihes like the BaHlakoane to build stone kraals and huts; 

 the latter with pavements in front to prevent these hungry carnivora 

 from orrowing under the door. — Ellenberger, op. cit.. p. 71. 



• ! See footnote 1 on p. 424. 



4 3,887.000 acres.— J. Stuart, "Hist, of Zulu Rebellion," 1806. 

 p. 16. 



'■ .1. <;. Gibson, " Hist, of Zulus," p. 243. 



