AFRICA. 295 
Caffire manages alfo, with much addrels, a 
weapon no lefs terrible than the affagay, 
when he falls in with his enemy. This 
weapon is a club, two feet and a half in 
length, made of one piece of wood, or of a 
root, three inches in diameter where thickeft, 
and decreafing in fize towards one of its ex- 
tremities. Sometimes he will dart it to the 
diftance of fifteen or twenty paces, and it is 
very rare that he does not hit the propofed 
mark. I have feen one of thefe favages 
kill a partridge in this manner the moment 
it fprang up from the ground. 
The fovereign power is hereditary In the 
king's family, and the prince is always fuc- 
ceeded by his eldeft fon ; but In default of 
male heirs, the neareft nephews, and not his 
brothers, are the fucceflbrs. In cafes where 
the fovereign leaves neither nephews nor chil- 
dren, a king is then chofen from among the 
chiefs of the different hordes. Upon thefe oc- 
cafions a fpirit of party fometimes prevails, 
which gives rife to fadlions and intrigues that 
generally end in bloodfhed. 
Polygamy is ufed among thefe CafFres, 
and their marriages are ftill fimpler than 
thofe of the Hottentots. The parents of the 
U 4 bridc- 
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