K A F 



adopted it, there being no doubt of the genus. It is 

 there faid to be perennial, flowering in April and May, 

 Tlie root is a globofe tuber, an inch in diameter, yellow 

 iRterna'ly, with concentric red and orange lines ; of a 

 very ftrong tafte and fmell, refembling ginger and faftVon. 

 Leaves a foot long, elliptical, pointed, tapering down into 

 fheathing footilalks, of a pleafant fcent and bitterilh tal^e. 

 Flcd-'crs fix or feven from the centre among tlie leaves, fho<-t- 

 lived, white with a tinge of red, their tube much longer than 

 the limb. Rheede's figure difplays the generic charafter 

 fufficiently well, and llv.-ws the lip, or lower fegmcnt of the 

 inner limb to be undivided, ovate, acute, and wavy. Seeds 

 rarely perfected. The Cuirumi rotunda of Linnius fcenis 

 chiefly to depend on this fynonym of Rheede. His herba- 

 rium throws no light upon the matter. 



K.EMPFERIA Rotunda, in the Materia Aledka. See 

 Zedoary. 



KAEN, in Geography, a town of Africa, and capital of 

 a kingdom, on the banks of the river Gambia. N. lat. i :; \ 



KAFAR TuTHA, a town of Afiatic Turkey, in the 

 province of Uiarbekir ; _:;2 miles S.W. of Nillbin. 



KAFER, a town of Perfia, in the province of Far- 

 fillan ; 40 miles S. of Schiras. 



KAFFABA, a town of Africa, and capital of a king- 

 dom of the fame name, in Soudan. N. lai. 11" 45'. W. 

 long, o' 12'. 



KAFFERS, or rather Koussis, a tribe of people who 

 inhabit thofe parts of Africa that he to the north and eaft 

 of the colony of the Cape ot Good Hope. Mr. Barrow 

 lias not been able to afcertain how far the belt of country 

 extends in width acrofs the fouthern part of Africa, that 

 is inhabited by the KafFers ; but the points on each coall to 

 which they do not e.xtend are luflicientlv determined. To 

 the fouthward of the Portuguefe fettlement of Rio de la 

 Goa, the natives are Kaffers, but appear to be a degene- 

 rated race. They are, however, free ; nor has Portuguefe 

 avarice yet dared to attempt to make them Haves. This 

 IS not the cafe to the northward. At Mozambique and 

 Soffala, the black people are all negroes ; not indeed the 

 natives of the fea-coaft, but fuch as are brought down from 

 the interior as articles of trade. From Mozambique, they 

 have now a direct communication acrofs the continent with 

 their fettlements of Congo, Loango, and Benguela, on the 

 well coall, as appears from the information of a Portuguefe 

 flave merchant, between which negro merchants are eftablilhed 

 in different parts of the country. In the line of this route 

 there are thercf(ireno Kafferi:. It further appears that another 

 powerful tribe of the fame nation, called " Baroloos," in- 

 habit the country under the fouthern tropic, nor are thefe 

 the lall to the northward. According to the account given 

 of this people, they are of a kind and friendly difpofition ; 

 their town is fo e.xtenlive, that if a perfon fet out in a morn- 

 ing from one extremity and travelled to the other, he would 

 not be able to return before the following day ; and con- 

 tains many thoufand inhabitants ; the people are very >n- 



geni. 



of 



nd have furnaces for fmelti: 



both copper and iron they are very rich in cattle, and their 

 gardens and lands are better cultivated, and their dwellings 

 much fuperior to thofe of Ltctahooy which fee. The " Da- 

 maras" alfo, who poffefs the art of fmelting copper from 

 the ore, are inhabitants of the tropic ; and they are com- 

 plete KafFers, differing ra no refpeft from thofe on the 

 eallcrn coaft. Mr. Barrow, therefore, fuppofes, that a 

 line drawn from the 24th parallel of latitude on the E. coaft 

 to the 20th on the W., may nearly mark the boundary be- 

 tween the Kafters and the Negroes. 



An open and manly deporlment, fays Mr. Barrow, free 



K A F 



from fufpicion, fear, or embarralTment, feems to charac- 

 terize the Kafl'er chiefs. Though extremely good-humoured, 

 benevolent, and hofpitable, tb.ey are neither fo pliant nor fo 

 pallive as the Hottentot. Tiiofe of the poorer clals fome- 

 tiines leek for fervice among the boors, and engage themfclvcs 

 for fo many moons in conlideration of fo many head of cat- 

 tle ; but they never fuffer thcmfelves to be duped out of 

 their hire like the eafy Hottentots. They are for the moft 

 part tall, upright, and well-niade men ; and in their ftature 

 and ftiength they exhibit fatisfactory evidence that animal 

 food is by no means ncceflary to promote the growth of the 

 human fpecies, or to add tlrength of fibre to the mufcular 

 parts of the body. Milk in a curdled ilate is the principal 

 food of the Kaffers. To this they fometimes add a few 

 gramineous roots, berries of various kinds, the feeds of 

 the " Strelitzia Reginae," and the pith of a large palm, to 

 which botanills have given the name of Zamia. They 

 rarely kill any of their cattle, unlcfs upon particular occa- 

 fions. I'hey poffefs no other domellic animals to yield them 

 food. In the whole KafFer country they have neither flieep 

 nor goats, pigs nor poultry. They cultivate no kind of 

 grain nor vegetables on this fide of the Great Fifh river, and 

 very little 0:1 the other fide ; but the Kafter tribes more to 

 the weftward, are very confiderable horticulturills. The 

 commifijoner.-i, fent out by the Britilli government in the 

 year jSoi, to endeavour to procure a fupply of draught 

 oxen, found extecfive fields of a fpecies of Holcus near the 

 city Leetakoo, the capital of a tribe of Kaffers, called 

 " Boolhooanas," liiuatc-d at the dillance of 16 days' journey 

 beyond the Orange river, in the direction of north-eait 

 from the Cape. The women here, as well as among the 

 eaftern Kaffers, and indeed in all nations jull emerged from 

 a favage ftate, went through all the hard labour and 

 drudgery that were required for the fupport of the family. 

 They not only performed the tafk of breaking up the ground 

 with a kind of hoe made of iron, and afterwards planted it ; 

 but they conilructed their habitations, and collefted the ma- 

 terials that were neceiFary. They reaped the grain, cleared 

 it from the hufl<, and laid it up in the granaries, which, 

 with other earthen pots and wooden veffels, were the work 

 of their hands. The men prepare the flcins and hides which 

 ferve for (hoes, and make them up into cloaks for them- 

 felves, their wives and children. They attend alio the cattle, 

 milk the cows, and hunt the antelopes and other game, with 

 a weapon called the Haffagai, which is ufed alfo in battle. 



Mr. Barrow is of opinion, that the Kaffers were not 

 the aborigines of the fouthern angle of Africa ; but that 

 they might, perhaps, derive their origin from fome of thofe 

 wandering tribes of Arabs known by the name of Be- 

 domns. Their palloral habits and manners, their kind and 

 friendly reception of ftrangers, their tent-lhaped houfes, 

 the remains of Iflamifm difcoverable in one of its ftrongeft 

 features, the circumcifion of male children, univerfally prac- 

 tifed among the Kaffer hordes, feem to indicate their Arabic 

 origin and tlieir affinity to the Bedouin tribes. Their coun- 

 tenance alfo is Arabic ; the colour only differs, which in 

 fome tribes vanes from deep bronze to jet black, but the 

 latter is moft generally the prevailing colour. Nor is it 

 likely that they owe this colour to their conneftion with 

 thofe blacks that are ufually called negroes, as they have no 

 refemblance, in any part of the body, to the peculiar con- 

 formation of this race of human beings. To the Etljio- 

 pians or Abyffinians they have a much clofer refemblance. 

 Barrow's Travels in Southern Africa. See Caifra»<a 

 and Delaoo.\ Bay, under which latter article the reader 

 is requelled to fublUtute KafFers for Kuffers, a typographical 

 error. 



KAIR, 



