222 
SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
to make their morality of a very lax and de- 
based description. The age of puberty with 
boys is fourteen, with girls, twelve. Still con- 
sidering the great disadvantages under which 
these wild and untutored daughters of Eve la- 
bour, they even now possess an interesting, con- 
fiding manner, which induces one to believe, 
that if the influence of civilization and religion 
could but be brought to bear upon them, they 
would be one of the most peculiarly interesting 
races of barbarians to be met with, in the uni- 
verse. 
Their mode of life is quite as barbarous as 
their dwellings are unique. They dwell in 
" kraals" or villages, which consist of an enclo- 
sure for their cattle, usually surrounded by 
brambles and bushes, heaped together in a 
kind of circular hedge, and enclosing an area 
of several yards in circumference. Into this 
they drive their cattle at night, and, to protect 
them from the attacks of wild beasts, they build 
their huts in rows around the outside of this 
enclosure. Thus the word "kraal" in their 
language, is used, by general acceptance, to 
denote a " Kaffir village," but, strictly speak- 
ing, it means "an enclosure for cattle." 
Their huts are like gigantic beehives. They 
are formed by sinking a number of long flexible 
rods or stakes, about fifteen or twenty feet long, 
