SOUTHERN AFRICA. 171 
of two inches, that two senses may at the same time receive 
the benefit and the gratification resulting from the practice of 
smoking. 
Few are the dietetic plants cultivated by the Kaff'ers. The 
millet, called by botanists the holcus sorghum^ and a very large 
species of water-melon, seem to be the most important arti- 
cles of their kitchen garden. The zamia cicadis, a species of 
palm, grows wild in almost every part of the country, and is 
sometimes used, as a substitute for millet, to mix with milk 
as a kind of furmety. Preparatory for this purpose the pith 
of the thick stem is buried in the ground for a month or five 
weeks, till it becomes soft and short, so as easily to be re- 
duced to a pulpy consistence. They eat also the roots of the 
iris eduUs, and several kinds of wild berries and leguminous 
plants. 
Had the Kaffers been more generally employed in tilling 
the ground, they would probably before this have obtained a 
more competent knowledge of the general causes by which the 
vicissitudes of the seasons are produced. At present they 
know little more of astronomy than that the moon in about 
thirty days will have gone through all her different phases ; 
and that in about twelve moons the same seasons will return. 
Their only chronology is kept by the moon, and is registered 
by notches in pieces of wood. It seldom extends beyond one 
generation till the old series is cancelled, and some great event, 
as the death of a favorite chief, or the gaining of a victory, 
sei'ves for a new asra. 
z 2 
