GAIKA. 71 



and having obtained some refreshment, retired to 

 rest with very different feelings from those which 

 we had entertained on the preceding evening in the 

 Veld. Whilst I was at breakfast on the following 

 morning with the Commandant, the Chief Gaika 

 entered the apartment, accompanied by his favourite 

 Queen, Tota. I prevailed upon her majesty on 

 this occasion to part with her full-dress cap, an 

 article of attire which I had hitherto endeavoured 

 in vain to procure at the various places lately visited 

 by me in Cafferland ; the females being unwilling to 

 dispose of this cap, from the circumstance of only 

 possessing one, and seeming to regard it as a sacred 

 gift, since it had been generally presented to them 

 by their husbands at the time of their marriage. 

 It is made of the skin of the little blue antelope, 

 with the hair inside, decorated with a profusion of 

 beads, and, from their mode of wearing it, has rather 

 an ornamental appearance. The Commandant showed 

 the queen his own wife's cap, and asked if she would 

 consent to exchange. She acknowledged it to be 

 very fine, but preferred her own, as the former, she 

 thought, would soon be worn out or spoiled on her 

 dirty head : a remark the truth of which could not 

 be questioned, as she was smeared all over with red 

 clay and grease. 



The appearance of Gaika about thirty years before 

 this period has been thus described by Mr. Barrow : — 

 " Gaika was at this time under twenty years of age, 



