204 
TRAVELS IN 
animal's face when walking. They were coiiddered as exce!- 
lenc beafts for riding or for bearing burthens. This variety of 
the common ox had not the dorfal tuft which the loofe-horned 
ox of Abyffmia is defcribed to polTefs. 
While the men are employed in rearing and attending the 
cattle, the women are engaged in the affairs of the houfe, and 
in cultivating the ground. Thefe, with the manufadure of 
bafkets with the Cyperus grafs, and of earthen pots for boiling 
their meat or corn, which are the chief part of their houfehold 
utenfils, the making their fkin-cloaks, and nurfmg their 
children, furnifh fufficient employment for the women. They 
are faid to be exceedingly prolific ; that twins are almoft as 
frequent as fingle births, and that it is no uncommon thing for 
a woman to have three at a time. Their children, foon after 
birth, are fuffered to crawl about perfedly naked ; and at 
fix or feven months they are able to run. A cripple or de- 
formed perfon is never feen. The Dutch have an idea that if 
a Kaffer child (hould be born imperfed, the parents immediately^ 
ftrangle it. Gaikas mother feemed fhocked at fuch a queftion 
being put to her ; and alTured me that a woman who could 
fulfer fuch an unnatural crime to be committed, would be 
chaced out of fociety. A high degree of civilization may in- 
deed dull the feelings of nature, and policy may fometimes 
filently approve of crimes committed againft it j but a favage 
feels the full force of parental afFe<fl:ion. 
There is perhaps no nation on earth, taken coliecTtively, that 
can produce fo fine a race of men as the Kaffers : they are tall, 
ftout, 
