SOUTH AFRICAN 



QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



SSCOSTB SSRZES. 



I70.1. OCTOBER— DECEMBER, 1833. Part 2. 



An Account of the Amakosae, a tribe of Caffcrs adjoinhig 

 the Eastern Boundary of the Cape Colony. By N. 

 MoRGAX, Esq. Assistant StafF-Surgeon. — (Abridged.) 



[Continued from page 12,] 



The kraals or villages of the Caffeis are situated on 

 rising grounds near the sources of the various streams, or at 

 the heads of the diilerent ravines, where water is to be found. 

 They consist of several huts of an heniisphorical form placed 

 iu a seraicircular position, to enahle them to have a view of 

 their cattle-fold which is formed of bushes and is iu the middle 

 of the villages. 



Ill the building of their huts a frame is first constructed by 

 fixing a number of long boughs in the ground iu a circular 

 manner, about six inches asunder ; they are bent over and 

 fastened to each other at the top, and are bound to other 

 boughs laid round and diagonally over the former, with the 

 inner bark of the Tyc Boom and Mimosa ; they then thatch 

 the whole frame with flags and long grass. One small aperture 

 is left to serve as a door and for windows and for the escape 

 of the smoke from the fire. The inside is plastered a few feet 

 from the ground with cow-dung and sand, and the floor is 

 made level and smooth with a similar composition. A circu- 

 lar place is left in the centre surrounded by a ridge an inch or 

 two in height ; this is the hearth, and on it is made the fire. 

 These huts are of various sizes, from tea to twenty feet in 

 diameter. When large, the roof is supported by sc\eral posts 

 placed without any regularity round thejire hearth at a suffi- 

 cient distance to prevent them taking fire: though the circum- 

 ference of these huts varies so much, yet there is scarcely any 

 dilTercnce in their height, which is generally from six to seven 

 feet, rarely ever exceeding the last measurement, and though 

 the larger ones are very fiat on the top, yet they are covered so 

 very close and firm that they are no more able to be penetrated 



by rain thai: the srnaller onps. 



