CAFFRARIA. 
523 
clothes ; they also till the ground, and cut wood. They like- 
M'ise manufacture mats of rushes, and neat baskets, wrought 
so close as to contain milk, but which are seldom washed or 
cleaned, except by the dogs' tongues. 
They can reckon no higher than to a hundred. To keep 
in remembrance the number of their cattle, &c. they cut 
notches in wood, each notch meaning an ox or cow. They 
frequently cross deep rivers by driving in the cattle, and, lay- 
ing hold of their tails, are dragged over by them. 
They have names for many of the stars, and know when it 
is near ploughing time by the position of some of these. 
They consider a rainy and a dry season as a year; so that, 
when speaking of ten years, they would say ten of these 
seasons. They have no money, but cattle, and other 
articles of subsistence, are used in its place, by way of 
exchange. 
Their method of preserving corn till it is necessary to 
use it, is somewhat curious. They dig a large hole in the 
middle of their cattle-kraal, the entrance of which is narrow, 
but is enlarged under ground, according to the size requisite 
to contain their stock. To secure the entrance, they plaster 
it lirst over with damp dung of their cattle, over which they lay 
dry dung about a foot in depth, which becomes so firm that 
their cattle, when put into the Kraal in the evenings, can 
walk over it without its sustaining any injury. Why they 
choose their cattle-kraal for placing their magazine in, I could 
not learn, but it is probably on account of their considering it 
the most secure place, as their cattle being their most valuable 
property will be best guarded in the night time — or because, 
should a thief come among the cattle, the noise they would 
make would probably awake those who might be asleep. 
When a family opens their magazine, they take such a quantity 
as they judge sufficient for their consumption to a certain 
time. The neighbouring families borrow what remains, 
which they restore at the opening of their magazines. 
The CafFres can live in those parts of the country where 
others cannot, because they seldom use water for drinking^ 
drinking only milk, when it is nearly sour; consequently, how* 
ever bad the water may be, if their cattle will drink it, they 
are satisfied. 
Their houses are built in the shape of a dome, formed of 
long sticks bent into that shape, thatched with straw, and 
plastered in the inside with a mixture of clay and cow dung. 
The entrance is low, seldom higher than two or three feet. 
Having no chimney, the smoke proceeding from the fire^ 
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