32 MANNERS OF THE KAFFIRS. 



with sufficient force to drive the iron through a man 

 when thrown from fifty to eighty yards' distance, while 

 some experts can throw them a hundred yards. An 

 assagy may be dodged when it comes singly, and is seen, 

 but a Kaffir prefers throwing it when your back is turned, 

 and generally sends a shower of them. Fortunately the 

 Kaffir nations consider that to poison spears is despicable. 

 When an assagy is quivering in the hand of a Kaffir, it 

 appears to be alive : the quivering motion given to it just 

 before casting continues to affect it during its aerial 

 course. 



The knob-kerries (sticks with large heavy knobs on 

 the end) are also very favourite weapons, and are thrown 

 with great precision. It is a frequent practice for a 

 dozen or more Kaffirs to go out after quail, and to knock 

 over great numbers of birds with their sticks. 



The Kaffir men assume a vast amount of dignity, and 

 look down upon the Hottentots, Fingoes, &c., as a very 

 inferior race to themselves. Gratitude they scarcely 

 seem to know, and charity is looked upon as a weakness. 



I saw a Kaffir come into the commissioner's residence 

 one day to sell some horses ; he made out a most mise- 

 rable story of his distress, stating that his cattle had been 

 taken by our soldiers, although he was a most peaceably 

 disposed man : he was in consequence very hungry, having 

 really little or nothing to eat. 



Trading at this time was forbidden between the Kaffirs 

 and the colonists, and this man wanted to go into the 

 colony to turn his horses into cash. The commissioner, 

 thinking the Kaffir's account was untrue, refused him this 



