various kinds, the feeds of the Strelitzia Regina, and the pith
of a large palm to which botanifts have given the name of
Zamia. I obferved alfo large tuberous roots, each the fize of a
main’s head, of a fpongy fubftanceand an auftere pungent tafte,,
•but I was not able to trace the plant of which they were the
roots. They rarely kill any of their cattle unlefs on particular
occafions. They poffefs no other domeftic animals to yield
them food. In the whole Kaffer country there is neither flieep
nor goats, pigs nor poultry. They cultivate no kind of grain
nor vegetables on, this fide of the Great Fiih River, and.'
very little on the other fide; but the Kaffer tribes, more to the-
weftward,, are very confiderable horticulturifts. The comraif-
fioners, fent out by the Britifii government- in the year iSoi,,
to, endeavour to procure a fupply of draught oxen, found ex-
tenfive fields of a fpecies of Holcus near the city Leetakoo, the-
capital of a tribe of Kaffers called Boojhooanas, fituate at the
diftance of fixteen days’ journey beyond the Orange River, in,
the direction of north-eaft from the Cape.
In the official report of the commiffioners, delivered to General
Dundas, their entrance into this city is thus defcribed:—
“ Paffing through feveral large tra&s of ground, that were laid
“ out and cultivated like io many gardens, we arrived about
“ noon at the city of Leetaioo, not a little aftonilhed to find, in
“ this part of the world, a large and populous city. We pro-
“ ceeded to the refidence of the chief, whofe name was Moo-
« liaban, where we found him, with the elders of the place,
“ feated on a plain that was enclofed with wood. . . . he offered
“ us fome curdled milk. After the reception he conduced us
i f to Ids habitation, and introduced us to his wives and chil-
M dren ; here alfo we faw numbers of women, who gazed at
“ us with aftonilhment. His boufe, like all the reft in the
“ town, was built in a circular form, being about fixteeq. feet
in diameter. The bottom part, to the height of four feet
“ from the ground, was ftone laid in clay, and wooden fpars
erefted at certain diftances. On the gaff fide of the circle,
“ about the fourth part of the houfe was open, the other three-
“ fourths entirely clofed. A round pointed roof covered the
“ whole in the form of a .tent, well thatched with long reeds,
“ or with the ftraws of the holcus. From the centre to the
u back part of the houfe, a circular apartment is made off,
“ with a narrow entrance into it, where the head of the fa-
■% roily takes his nightly reft ; the other members of the family
M fleep in the fore part, or between the large and fmall circles
of the houfe. All the houfes were enclofed by pallifades;
•“ and the fpace between thefe and the dwelling ferves for x.
“ granary and ftore for their grain and pulfe. Thefe granaries
4i were conftrufted in the form of oil jars, of baked clay, the
“ capacity of each being at the leaft two hundred gallons 5 and
“ they were fupported on tripods, coropofed of the .fame ma-
“ terial, which raifed them about nine inches above the ground.
■“ They were covered with a round ftraw roof erefited on poles,
and fufficiently high to admit an opening into the jars, the
“ upper edges of which were from five -to. fix feet from the
“ ground.
“ We walked through the :tow,n and ohferved' that hoth
4,1 within it, and on every fide, were plantations of that fpecies
Q.2 “ of