that differ from them in every point, in color, in features, in
form, in difpofition, in manners, and in language, it would be
abfurd to confider them as indigenous to the fmall fpot they
now poffefs. To fpeculate upon their origin, it might not perhaps
be far from the mark to fuppofe them to have fprung from
fome of the tribes of thofe wandering Arabs known by the
name of Beduins. Thefe people are known to have penetrated
into almoft every part of Africa. Much of the Arab features
are vifible in the countenance of a Kaffer; and there is a ftrong
refemblance in his way of life, his paftoral habits, his character,
and treatment of ftrangers that may want his protection.
Colonies of thefe people have found their w.ay even to the
illands of South Africa, where more difficulties would occur
than in a journey over land to the Cape o f Good Hope. By
ikirting the Red Sea, and turning to the fouthward along the
fea-coaft, the great defert of fand that divides Africa into two
parts is entirely avoided, and the paffage lies over a country
habitable as far as is known in every part.
Circumcifion of male children, that grand feature of Iflam-
ifm, is univerfally praCtifed among the Kaffers, and is the only
exterior mark that feems to remain of a religious or facred infti-
tution. He confiders it, however, in the limited point of view
of a duty owing to the memory of his anceftors, a prefcriptive
cuftom handed down to him as an example he is bound to follow.
He neither afcribes the praCtice o f it to a principle of
cleanlinefs, nor to any other caufe or motive, but contents him-
felf by pleading ancient ufage. A circumcifor is a profeffion,
and I believe the only one that exifts among the Kaffers. The
time
-time of performing the operation is generally at the age of
eight or nine years. The people who follow the profeffion
travel from village to village, cutting all the male children who
may be of a proper age. During the timé he remains in a village,
which may be eight or ten days, to fee that his patients are
doing well, he is feafted from houfe to houfe.
To perform the operation of circumcifion nothing more is
neceffary than a ffiarp piece of iron in the form of the blade of
a knife. The point of this is inferted between thé glans and
the prepuce on the upper part, -and the ikin laid open to the
root where they unite ; from thence the inftrument is paffed
down each fide to the froenum, clofe along the edge of which
the whole prepuce is removed in two parts. After the operation
the boy adopts a fmall bag of leather which extends a little
beyond the glans penis, and fits fufficiently tight to remain on
without binding, though fome tvear a belt to which the covering
is attached by a ftring. The projecting end of the purfe
has a fmall ffiank about an inch in length by which it may
more conveniently be drawn off: this, with the rings, and
beads, and other ornaments, conftitutes the whole of a Kaffer’s
fummer drefs. He wears nothing on his head, which is naturally
covered with the fame kind of curling hair as that of
the Hottentot. This circumftance of fliort hair ihould feem to
operate againft the fuppofition of their Arabic origin ; but their
intermixture with the Hottentots and other neighbouring
nations along the coaft, would very fpeedily have produced
it ; and when a twift is once got into the hair, in a warm climate,
it feems to increafe with every generation. The Bajiaards
here