KAFFIR WOMEN. 19 



The frontier Kaffirs are fine athletic men, and stand 

 generally about six feet in height : they are nearly black, 

 and have woolly hair, although the features are in many- 

 cases almost European. The mtombVs, or young girls, 

 are often quite pretty, with wild, free, dark eyes, that may 

 well plead as excuses for the young Kaffirs' propensity 

 for cattle^tealing, the decimal coinage of Kaffirland being 

 10 cows = 1 wife. 



One very soon gets over the prejudice of colour, and 

 after having looked for some time on the rich black of a 

 Kaffir belle, a white lady appears bloodless, consumptive, 

 and sickly in comparison. The hard work that an umfazi, 

 or wife, has to perform very soon spoils her girlish figure 

 and appearance, and she then becomes a haggard, 

 wrinkled, repulsive old witch. The coolness of all these 

 women is often surprising. A skirmish with the Kaffirs 

 and our troops might take place on one day, and on the 

 next the women belonging to the Kaffir men engaged 

 would come into the camp and offer wood or milk for 

 sale, calling to us to " tenga" (buy). I suspect that 

 these women are often sent in merely as spies. 



There is a great mistake prevalent in the minds of 

 most English people, and that is, their habit of under- 

 rating the Kaffir as a foe. He is looked upon as a naked 

 savage, armed only with a spear, and hardly worth 

 powder and shot. But in reality the Kaffirs are a 

 formidable race, and, from their skill in many arts in 

 which we are deficient, are much to be dreaded. Nearly 

 every frontier Kaffir is now provided with a gun, thanks 

 to the English traders, and very many have horses. The 



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