KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



207 



OUR ENEMIES, THE KAFFIRS. 



At the present moment, it may not be 

 uninteresting to give our readers a graphic 

 sketch of the men who have so long been a 

 terror to us, but who now have good reason 

 to fear us. The description is furnished by 

 the Rev. Francis Fleming, M.A. 



In personal appearance and formation, 

 the Kaffirs are a race of the most manly and 

 handsome people known among savages, 

 and in many of their points resemble the 

 New Zealanders. In stature they are gene- 

 rally tall, their height varying from five feet 

 eight or nine inches to upwards of six feet. 

 Their muscular frame is remarkable for 

 symmetry and beauty, as well as great 

 strength ; but their arms, from want of 

 proper exercise to develop the muscles 

 (owing probably to their usual indolent mode 

 of life), appear small and disproportioned in 

 size to the legs and body. 



In all of them the lower limbs are 

 strikingly robust and fine, and cases of 

 deformity are very rarely to be noticed 

 amongst them. Their carriage is stately and 

 upright — in many even majestic ; and this is 

 particularly observable in their chiefs, whose 

 habitual attitudes of ease, and abrupt yet 

 graceful actions in giving their commands, 

 are truly elegant and imposing. They are 

 haughty and proud in their bearing, and 

 carry the head erect and thrown back. 

 The left arm is usually laid across the chest, 

 to support the blanket or kaross, which, 

 carelessly slung over the left shoulder, is 

 their only covering or article of clothing. 

 This, when moving quickly, they gather 

 closer around them ; and then, throwing the 

 second corner of it over the right shoulder, 

 they leave it to hang in negligent folds across 

 their fine expansive chests, reminding the 

 beholder much of the Roman toga of old. 



Their shoulders are square and firmly set, 

 and, like the chest, very broad. Their heads 

 are large, but not disproportioned to their 

 bodies ; the forehead being elevated and 

 intellectually formed, and in many cases very 

 high, and finely developed in a phrenological 

 point of view. Their hair is woolly, although 

 not so thick and matted as in either the 

 negro or Hottentot races, from whom the 

 Kaffirs widely differ in all points of personal 

 appearance. Their ears are large, but well 

 made, and seem generally to have become 

 elongated by the weight of their pendant 

 ear-rings and ornaments. Their features, 

 although much varied, are fine — particularly 

 the eyes, which are keen and piercing ; and, 

 although always unsteady, wandering and 

 stealthy, yet from their large size and great 

 brightness, and from their being well set 

 under their broad deep brows, the idea of 

 cunning and deceit, which undoubtedly is 



their national character, and has usually 

 to be found out by some dear-bought ex- 

 perience, does not at first sight impress a 

 stranger. 



The common color of the eye is black, or 

 dark brown, somewhat in harmony with that 

 of their skins, which are however darker in 

 some tribes than in others, especially in the 

 Amampondo and more northerly ones. The 

 nose also varies in form — in the T'Slambie 

 tribes being broader and more of the negro 

 shape, than in the Gaikas or Galekas, while 

 among the Abatembu and Amampondo, it 

 assumes more of the European character. 

 In many of them, the perfect Grecian and 

 Koman noses are discernible. These latter 

 tribes appear, in all other respects, to 

 retain their original nationality of appear- 

 ance. 



THE ART OF SUCCESS. 



In everything we do " well," Faith 

 must be the ladder that raises us up. If we 

 would progress, let us resolve to please. No- 

 thing is more easy, if we set rightly about it. 

 In all that we undertake, towards whatever 

 object we direct our ambition — to please is 

 to succeed, and the art of succeeding is no 

 other than the art of pleasing. 



What is it that pleases ? Is it a little man, 

 or a tall man ? Is it a bountiful share of 

 embonpoint, or a slender form? Is it a 

 black moustache, or a blonde one with large 

 whiskers, if one is not in the army, or a face 

 carefully shorn of every hair? Is it a timid 

 look, or a tempting eye? an air of confi- 

 dence, or of modesty ? the candor of a young 

 Englishman, or the petulance of a French- 

 man, a simple attire, or a dress of magnifi- 

 cence? 



To render a woman pleasing, must she 

 appear a goddess to our eyes ? Ought she 

 to have ebon locks, or golden tresses ? the 

 nose of Roxalana, or of Aspasia ? a passionless 

 languor, or an impetuous vivacity ? Shall 

 we prefer the warm tint of the Spanish 

 woman, or the delicate complexion of the 

 English woman? 



The reply to all these questions is, that 

 every thing pleases in its kind, when you 

 find in it that je ne sais qitoi which cannot 

 be expressed, and which makes an impres- 

 sion we know not how. That which pleases, 

 is not always regular beauty ; but never 

 ugliness. It is often maliciousness, but never 

 wickedness ; it is at times good-nature, 

 never silliness ; it is a modest reserve and 

 not affected prudery ; the abandon of an 

 affectionate heart, and not the artful advances 

 of a coquette ; ingenious sallies, and not 

 pedantic bon-mots. It is sometimes the 

 self-love of a giddy youth, never the pre- 

 sumption of a man vain of his learning. We 



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