NEGRO RACE. 



Kaffres on a March. 



is formed of basket-work. A few mats, coarse earthenware pots, of native manufacture, made of the fine 

 clay taken from deserted ant-hills, a rush-basket, so closely woven as to retain liquids, and a wooden bowl 

 or two, constitute the sole furniture of these simple dwellings. Milk is preserved in skins, and is not used 

 until thick and sour, when it is more nutritious. The kaross, or cloak of sheepskin, rendered soft by cur- 

 rying, forms the dress of both sexes. The chiefs wear a leopard's skin by way of distinction. The females 

 wear a covering of hide. The personal appearance of the Kaffres is pleasing. Lieutenant Moodie. in his 

 "Ten Years in South Africa," says, "They are elegantly formed, and so graceful that they appear to be a 

 nation of gentlemen. In their manners they are respectful without servility, and possess a native delicacy 

 which prevents them from giving offence by word or action." The accounts of their personal appearance 

 are generally supposed to be rather exaggerated; but there can be little doubt, from the favorable testi- 

 mony of many travellers, that their appearance and carriage are really prepossessing. Pringle says, 

 "The CafTros are a tall, athletic, and handsome race of men, with features often approaching to the Euro- 

 pean or Asiatic model ; and excepting their woolly hair, exhibiting few of the peculiarities of the Negro 

 race. Their color is a clear dark-brown; their address is frank, cheerful and manly." The women are not 

 M ir'x id-looking as the men, owing to the labors which they undergo. The men will inclose their patches 

 of ground, and milk the cows, but the actual cultivators are the women, who likewise construct their huts. 

 Polygamy is common, but it is confined to the most wealthy, as the wives are always purchased by cattle. 

 The women take their meals apart from the men. The custom of polygamy is believed to be of recent 

 origin, and arose out of the number of unprotected women which followed a war in which great numbers 

 of males were killed. The Kaffre language is soft and copious, but the native airs are tame, and not to be 

 compared to those of the Hottentots, whose language, however, is far less agreeable. Though prudent and 

 economical, the Kaffres are exceedingly hospitable. Cattle are, generally speaking, only killed on the 



occasion of marriages or other festivities. 



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