336 



CAFFRES. 



the Cape colony, is performed by the Europeans 

 mostly with the aid of oxen, not less than four or 

 five pairs being customarily attached to the un- 

 wieldy and lumbering waggons of the country, 

 and this practice again, as well as the price which 

 tin.- hides of the animals will bring in tin* civilized 

 market, where one is ut hand, adds to the value 

 of the herd. Even the amusements of these 

 people are derived from the same source. Racing 

 young cattle is a favourite sport ; and a part of the 

 herd are trained to run at an astonishing rate, the 

 oddity, if not beauty, of the appearance of this 

 singular procession being doubtless not a little 

 augmented by the Cuffre custom of twisting the 

 horns of the animals, while they are yet flexile, 

 into all sorts of fantastical shapes. In a word, 

 the ox is to the Caffre what the horse is to the 

 Bedouin, or the deer to the Laplander, shelter, 

 vesture, carrier, family and food. 



As might be expected, the principal aliment of these 

 tribes is mi I It, which they use, like the Arabs, in a 

 sour, curdled state ; next to this article, boiled corn, 

 (Indian) for they cultivate, after a fashion, con- 

 siderable tracts of fertile land ; and more generally, 

 a species of millet, also pumpkins, a kind of sugar- 

 cane, gourds, fruits, and a few esculent roots of 

 minor importance. The use of animal food is rare. 

 Veal is objectionable in an economical view. 

 Swine's flesh is rejected by the Caffres with abhor- 

 rence. The same is the case with the feathered 

 tribe to some extent -, none of them keep poultry 

 of any sort ; and eggs, as an article of food, are 

 altogether contraband. Nay, Caffres will have 

 nothing to do with the fish of the sea, which they 

 for the most part regard as company only for 

 snakes, so that, although they live almost wholly on 

 or near the coast, the entire line of which abounds 

 with the choicest fish, they are ignorant even of 

 the art of casting a net. Neither will they eat 

 elephant's flesh on any occasion, or even undertake, 

 like the Hindoos, to domesticate that animal. This 

 is the more remarkable, since he is always regarded 

 as favourite game, and the passage of a herd in the 

 neighbourhood of a hamlet is the signal for a gene- 

 ral hue and cry. The tusks are the prize sought 

 for. One of them falls to the lot of him who first 

 pierces the game with his weapon, and the other to 

 the chief of the party. 



The Caffre does not, however, subsist wholly on 

 vegetable food. The issue of the very elephant 

 hunts, is usually celebrated by the feasting of the 

 whole company upon an ox, which the successful 

 hunter must furnish : and on other occasions a 

 rhinoceros is despatched and devoured with as much 

 gout, and as little ceremony or cookery, as if be 

 were no bigger than a cabbage-head. Plain animal 

 food, without salt, seasoning, or vegetable, is the 

 greatest luxury the CarTre desires, and whenever 

 any one kills a cow, it is an invariable custom 

 throughout the country for all around to flock to 

 the feast. Even this custom, however, rather in- 

 dicates the infrequency of the use of such food, 

 and on the whole it may doubtless be asserted 

 safely, that it enters in a very small proportion 

 into their regular subsistence. They are substan- 

 tially a milk-fed nation ; and if the physiologists, 

 philosophers, or physicians have any theories to 

 form or confirm in respect to the influence of such 

 aliment on the character of the people with whom 

 it prevails, they will probably find few cases where 

 the data are more conveniently set before them. 



Whatever the cause may be, the Caffres are gene- 



rally admitted to be favourably distinguished from 

 most barbarous nations by their mildness of dis- 

 position, a position, which is not much contra- 

 dicted by the existence of many harsh and cruel 

 customs among them, ratlin- iippcitinent to condi- 

 tion than character, and chiefly the immediate re- 

 sult of excessive superstition. Travellers gene- 

 rally, and especially missionaries, when known to 

 be such, have always been treated with signal 

 civility. This is confirmed by Barrow, Lichen- 

 stein, Alberti, TSeneral Janssens, and others. Vasco 



de Gama originally named them boa ycnte, " good 



people;" and, we have the testimony of the Ameri- 

 can captain Stout, of the ship Hercules, who, in 

 his narrative of the shipwreck of his vessel on this 

 coast, acknowledges that he found in the natives a 

 hospitality, and received from them a protection, 

 which on many of the shores of the polished na- 

 tions of Europe he might have looked for in vain. 

 " They made a fire to dry us, slaughtered a 1ml. 

 lock, conducted us to a spring of water, &c. Such 

 was the conduct of a people described as possess- 

 ing no other semblance of the human character, 

 than what they derive from their formation.' The 

 reputation of the Caffres, for what this gentleman 

 calls "the compassionate feelings which adorn hu- 

 manity," may, on the whole, be considered as suffi- 

 ciently established. 



Their reputation for honesty does not perhaps 

 rest on so good a foundation. In 1828, when Mi- 

 Kay visited Gaika, a celebrated and principal chief, 

 with the view of obtaining permission to establish 

 a missionary station in his country, (in which he 

 succeeded) one of that potentate's wives contrived 

 to steal a silk handkerchief from the pocket of a 

 gentleman in the company, while he was engaged 

 in negotiation with the husband. When Mr Kay 

 went into Caffreland a second time, during the year 

 last named, on the same errand as before, he gives 

 a graphic description of an interview with the na- 

 tives, which took place under the spreading branches 

 of a thorn-tree, on the banks of a solitary stream. 

 The news of his arrival collected great crowds of 

 visitors the next morning; and "their deportment 

 was indeed friendly," says Mr Kay, " but circum- 

 stances soon convinced us, that they would consi- 

 der it no evil to pick and steal whenever opportu- 

 nity enabled them to do so." It is remarkable that 

 a remedy was found in this instance by hiring one 

 of the depredators, for the consideration of a few 

 beads, to guard the exposed property of the tent. 

 This he did to the perfect satisfaction of his em- 

 ployers, and the missionary embraces with evident 

 pleasure this occasion of stating, as an offset to the 

 vice before charged upon the Caffre, that he never 

 knew a single instance of his betraying his trust in 

 any thing which was fairly and fully committed to 

 his charge. " Do this," he adds, " and the utmost 

 confidence may in general be placed in him." 



It may, however, be remarked, that a thieving 

 disposition is to some extent an almost universal 

 trait of savage character. If the Caffre carries it 

 farther than some others, by stealing, whenever he 

 can conveniently, as Mr Kay somewhere states, 

 from even his best friends of his own tribe, and by- 

 inculcating this Spartan doctrine systematically, in 

 early life, upon the minds of his children, perhaps 

 this pre-eminence may be fairly attributed in a great 

 measure to the nature of the intercourse he has 

 held for a century and a half with his profligate 

 European neighbours, and especially to the depre- 

 dations and other injuries he has suffered at their 



