THE .NATIVE AND AGRICULTURE. 423 



lazy and immoral class, much under-taxed and pampered," the 

 consequence, probably, of its having been protected by Farewell's 

 party and the English colony from the tyranny of the Zulu 

 despots. The Fingo refugees show some aptitude for a sort of 

 peddling trade. 



Generallv speaking, the tribal system involving collective 

 responsibility and collective possession 1 has inculcated habits of 

 combination or mutual assistance which, as Mr. Dudley Kidd puts 

 it, constitute "socialism."- Unlike, therefore, the isolated and 

 individualistic Boer farmer, who either avoided or quarrelled with 

 his neighbour, the Kaffir recognises the necessity of co-operation 

 in such matters as the dipping of his sheep, the inoculation of his 

 cattle and the destruction of locust swarms. Hence, when unity 

 of action is demanded, the flocks and herds are better kept immune, 

 or the contagious disease or noxious insect eradicated more quickly 

 and effectively by the Native than by the European. Moreover, 

 the simple Kaffir has his own method of curing disease and pro- 

 moting vegetative growth gained through many generations from 

 an inherited experience and application of the system of "trial 

 and error," which, though not based on the science of the schools, 

 should not be too readily despised by the agriculturist. 



The Zulu breed of oxen forms a marked contrast to that of 

 the Bechuana and Hottentot. They are diminutive, graceful 

 animals with small humps, indicating that they were formerly 

 introduced into the East Coast from India or Persia, being 

 descendants of the zebu. Among the Xosa Kaffirs they seem to 

 have interbred with the Hottentot variety, and with excellent 

 results, for the writer does not remember having seen more 

 beautiful and symmetrical oxen than those belonging to the 

 Gcaleka chieftains depasturing the hill-slopes of the Transkei at 

 the outbreak of the 1877-8 War. The Kaffir really breeds, not 

 for slaughter, for he lives on milk and mealies and only slays an 

 ox when avarice allows or ceremonial enjoins; nor did he use oxen 

 as beasts of draught though he employed them once as beasts of 

 burden (pack-oxen). The plough, before the arrival of the white 

 man was unknown. In its place he used the hoe. Cattle were, 

 in fact, the form in which he liked to realise his wealth, to be 

 parted with only in exchange for wives. 



The Xosa-Kaffir also kept a few sheep, but he acquired them 

 with his Hottentot wives, together with his name for them, igusha 

 (Hott. gusa) s a term now applied to merino sheep to distinguish 

 them from Cape sheep 



1 "Land Tenure and Criminal Law of the Kaffirs and Anglo- 

 Saxons," Revue Coloniale et Internationale, Vol. II., pp. 81, 86. 



2 "An organisation of society in which the means of life, whether 

 production, distribution or protection are held in collective ownership." 

 — "Kaffir Socialism," by Dudley Kidd, p. 3, note. 



3 (J.f. KiHiau. ngoza. The word for sheep varies in almost every 

 Bantu dialect. The following: Zulu umvu, Sechuana nku, Otyi- 

 Hereo Ntu, Hambunda origue, are akin. 



