which feémed to be deftined for the, ufe of the queen flood at
the head of the village ; was fomewhat larger than the reft, and
finiihed in a neater manner : it was about ten feet in diameter,
and eight feet high. They are firft ihaped by frames of wood,
and afterwards daubed over with a kind o f mortar eompofed of
clay and the dung o f cattle ; and, when this is fufficiently dry, a
neat covering of matting is worked oyer the; whole. Such huts
are completely water-tight, and very warm.
The Kaffers having always been reprefented as agriculturifts,
we were a little difappointed in not meeting with gardens and
cultivated grounds about their habitations* not 'a veftige of
which had any where appeared. On putting the quèftion to
Gaika, he replied, that having been engaged in war for thé tfeb
or three years laft paft, during which he had not been'ablhVo
fix at any one place above a month or two1 at a time, they hail
confequently been under the neoeility o f fufpending their pur-
fuits of agriculture : that in time of peace they always planted
millet, and feveral kinds of vegetables f and that nothing could
give him an equal degree of pleafure to that o f feeing the
keerie, now an inftrument of war, converted into art ufenfil of
hufbandry; but that at prefent he was juft on the eve'of another
campaign. He feemed much pleafed when the Iartdfoft
told him, that if, on his return from his expedition, he would
fend to Graaff Reynet, he ihould be fupplied with corn and
different garden-feeds ; and he appeared to anticipate the happi-1
nefs that his people would experience, after the fatigues and
horrors of war, in returning to their ancient habits of peaceful
The country: inhabited by-the people, whom the colonifts
diftinguilh by the name of Kaffers, .is bounded on the fouth
By the fea-Coaft; on the eaft, : by ,a tribe of the fame kind of
people who call- themfelves ‘tambookies; on the north, by the
favage Bosjefmans i; and on, the weft, by the colony of the Cape,
With the Tambookies they ljve on friendly terms ; but, like the
Dutch peafantry, they have declared perpetual war againft the
Bosjefmans. Their expeditions, however, againft thefe favages
are not attended with the . fame fuccefs as thofe of the colonifts.
The Bosjefmans care as. little, for a Haffagai as they dread , a
mufquet, The principal weapon ufed by the Kaffers is an iron,
fpear from nine inches to a foot in length, fixed at the end of a,
tapering ihaft about,four feet long. Such an inftrument is called
by the Hottentots a haffagai, but the Kaffer name is omkontoo.
In throwing this fpear they grafp it with the palm o f the hand,
and railing the arm above the head, and giving the ihaft a quivering
motion to find the proper point of equilibrium, it is
delivered with the fore-finger and the thumb. At the diftanCe
of fifty or fixty paces they can throw at a mark with a tolerable,
degree of exadtnefs; but beyond that diftance they have no
kind of certainty. It appears to be a very indifferent fort of
weapon, and eafily to be avoided. In battle they receive the
point of the haffagai upon an oval fhield about four feet in
depth, made from the hide o f a bullock. Their other weapon,
the keerie, is lefs formidable than the haffagai;: this is a flick
about two feet and a half long, with a round knob at the end
about two inches in diameter, and very weighty, being the root
of feme ihrub. They throw it in the fame manner as the Haffagai,
and are very expert in killing birds and the {mailer fort
D D o f