SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
121 
employment; and they seemed to feel a pleasure in our 
admiration of them. They were all nearly made after 
one model, which in shape was that of a common beehive. 
As they are never washed nor cleaned, the milk thrown 
into them almost immediately coagulates, in which state 
it is always used by this people, and never pure and sweet 
as taken from the animal. Mr. Vaillant's assertion of their 
washing their milk-baskets with urine, in order to make it 
speedily coagulate, is wholly without foundation, and may 
be reckoned as one of those happy inventions of his brilliant 
fancy which are profusely scattered through tlie pages of his 
entertaining book. Having no bread, nor vegetables, nor 
roots, but such as grow spontaneously in the country, and 
seldom killing any of their cattle for the sake of the flesh, 
the necessity of taking something solid into the stomach led 
them, perhaps, to adopt this manner of drinking their milk; and 
the best proof of its nutritious quality, in such a state, was 
the general healthy appearance and vigor of their persons. 
Towards tlie setting of the sun the whole plain was covered 
with cattle, which in vast herds were brought in from every 
quarter at the signal of command, given by a particular kind 
of whistling noise made with the mouth ; at another whistle 
the milch-cows separated from the herd, and came forward to 
have their milk drawn from them. This operation, and the 
management of the dairy, form a part of the employment of 
the men. In the morning a different kind of whistle sent 
them out to graze. In fact the Kafl^ers and their cattle 
seemed perfectly to understand each other. 
