SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
as thofe of opium. In the ufe of this and of tobacco, the 
oriental cuftom of drawing the fmoke through water by means 
of the hookar, tliougii in a rude manner, is ftill retained. The 
bowl of their earthen-ware pipe is attached to the end of a 
thick reed which ftands obliquely fixed into the fide of an 
eland's horn. This horn being filled with water, the mouth is 
applied to the oppofite end to that near which the reed is fixed. 
The Hottentot difiers very materially from the KaiTer in the 
conftrudion of his pipe. He reduces the ftem to the length 
of two inches, that two fenfes may at the fame time receive the 
benefit and the gratification refuidng from the praflice of 
fmoking. 
Few are the dietetic plants cultivated by the KafFers. The 
millet, called by botanifts the holcus forghum^ and a very large 
fpecies of water-melon, feem to be their principal culinary 
plants. The zam'ia cycad'is^ a fpecies of palm, grows wild in 
almoft every part of the country, and is fometimes ufed, as a 
fubftitute for millet, to mix with milk as a kind of furmety. 
For this purpofe the pith of the thick ftem is buried in the 
ground for a month or five weeks, till it becomes foft and 
fliort, fo as eafily to be reduced to a pulpy confiftence. They 
eat alfo the roots of the iris eduUs^ and feveral kinds of wild 
berries, and leguminous plants. 
Had the Kaffers been more generally employed in tilling the 
ground, they had probably before this arrived at a more com- 
petent knowledge of the general caufes by which the viciffi- 
tudes of the feafons are produced. At prefent they know little 
F F more 
