Wild Kaffir Life and Wild Kaffir Intelligence. 293 



harvesting, in pits dug in the ground, with only a narrow- 

 opening left at the top, which is carefully and skilfully 

 closed by placing a flat stone over it, for protection against 

 the rain. The food is prepared by the women, sometimes 

 aided by the children and young lads. The Indian corn 

 is roasted, when green, upon the cob ; when ripe the grain 

 is crushed by hand, between stones, and the meal converted 

 into a kind of porridge. The milk from the cows is chiefly 

 consumed in a half sour and clotted state by the children. 

 The millet is ground between stones, and made into a 

 sort of infusion or decoction, which undergoes spontaneous 

 fermentation, and so becomes converted into a liquor that is 

 known as Kaffir beer (Tywala). In its choicest state, as it is 

 found in the cellars of distinguished men, this liquid is limpid 

 and clear, and possessed of considerable inebriating power. It 

 is unquestionably very nourishing. In more common-place 

 households it bears a considerable resemblance to a mixture of 

 bad gruel and table beer. The beer drinking is the most ordi- 

 nary form of native carouse. When there is a good brewing 

 ripe, the men assemble and drink the liquid in rotation out of 

 capacious gourds or pots, made of closely and thickly- woven 

 grass, or more rarely of hardened clay. The beer is kept 

 during fermentation in these vessels, which stand in the interior 

 of the hut, opposite to the doors, something like the jars of the 

 Forty Thieves, in a long row. The milk is held in similar 

 vessels. The beer pots and milk pots are carried by the women 

 and girls, very skilfully balanced upon their heads. A jovial 

 spark, off on a visit, may be sometimes met, with a string of 

 women or girls, each with a full beer pot balanced on her head, 

 behind him. The water for household use is brought in by the 

 women from the nearest stream, in gourds. 



Under ordinary circumstances the gardens furnish a fairly 

 ample supply of food for the daily wants of the household. But 

 occasionally from some accident of season, or from some other 

 cause, the supply runs short, and periods of great privation 

 have to be endured. One of the first benefits which the bar- 

 barian reaps from the neighbourhood of civilized men is the 

 alleviation of this unavoidable misery of barbarous life. So 

 soon as he has white neighbours within reach of his kraal, he 

 is pretty sure to have some additional resource to draw upon 

 in seasons of dearth and famine. In olden times, and still in 

 remote districts, the Kaffirs occasionally die of famine in great 

 numbers; and those who survive subsist to a large extent, 

 even for weeks at a time, upon wild roots dug up out of the 

 ground. 



Animal food, among the Kaffirs, is entirely a matter of 

 carouse and feasting. If a distinguished visitor comes to a 



