THE BANTU OF SOUTH AFRICA 



299 



some sections of the tribe have taken to agriculture, and collect wild roots and herbs. They 

 have many superstitions regarding food, and a strong horror of salt: they believe in witch- 

 craft; and, like many of the Equatorial Negroes, have a highly developed tree-cult. 



The Ovampo of Northern German South-west Africa are a less interesting race. They 

 are Bantu, and are well built, tall, and intelligent. They are agriculturists in the main, but 

 own some cattle. The tribe numbers now about 100,000. 



THE KAFFIRS. 



The name Kaffir is now used by English writers in Cape Colony for any South African 

 Negro. But the name is used historically and ethnographically for the Ama-Xosa or Ama-Kosa, 

 the leading Bantu nation living south of Natal. The word Kaffir is of Arabic origin, and means 

 "infidel." It was applied by the early settlers of the eastern part of Cape Colony to the 

 warlike natives of that region, just as it has been given in India to one of the turbulent hill 

 peoples of the north-western frontier. Kaffraria which, like the Kaffiristan of India, means " the 

 country of the Kaffirs " is bounded on the south-west by the Great Kei River, which enters the 

 Indian Ocean near East London, and on the north by the southern frontier of Natal, and thus 

 includes the districts known as the Transkei, Tembuland, and Pondoland. The Ama-Kosa, who 

 inhabit this region, are a typical Bantu race. They are muscular but slim, and well proportioned; 

 they stand about 5 feet 10 inches high. They are dark brown in colour, have woolly hair, a 

 broad nose, and thick lips. Intellectually they are brave, intelligent, submissive to discipline 

 and quick pupils. 



They dress in skins or blankets, and adorn their hair with feathers, strings of corals, and 

 metal beads. One section of the nation dresses the hair into a kind of cap: a grass ring is 

 placed over the crown of the head, and the hair is fastened to it by grease; as the hair grows 

 the ring is raised from the head, like a cap. 



Photo bit B. W. Caney] 



ZULU WOMEN GRINDING CORN. 



[Durban. 



