enumerate a little more particularly and describe,more fully
the tribes belonging to these subdivisions.
IT 2. Of the Amakosah and other Kafirs of the coast of
Natal.
Amakosah, in the singular Kosa, is the national appellation
of the southern Kafirs : their country is called Amak osina,
According to the traditional accounts preserved by the old
people: of this tribe, they first settled on the great Kei River,
under their chief Togul, but whether they were a colony from
the Tambuki or Amatymbah tribe, or from some nation, of the
same race further towards the north-east, has not been ascer-r
tained. The period of their emigration appears, from, the traditional
accounts, to have been about one hundred end fifty
years ago. They purchased with herds of cattle, tracts of
country on the coast between the Sunday and Fish Rivers,
from the Gonaaqua Uottentots, who formerly inhabited them.
3. The Bechuanas.
The Bechuanas are a widely-extended branch, or subdivision,
of the Kafir race, inhabiting the interior of Southern Africa,
and consisting of many nations independent of each other,;
and. often engaged in mutual hostilities. They have in cob mj < i n
their language termed the Sichuana, a clearly distinguished
dialect of the Kafir speech. They likewise differ in some traits
of manner and habit from the Amakosah, but are undoubtedly
a branch of the same stock.
The Bechuana tribe, principally known as yet to Europeans))
are the people termed Batclapls, whose chief town is Litaku,
situated in south latitude 27° 6' 44".#
To the same division of the race belongs the Barolong trib%
whose country is about one hundred miles north-eastward
from Litaku.f
The Tammahas, Murutsi, and Wankitsi, are also tribes
of Bechuanas. The Sichfiana language is likewise spoken
by the Batcloqueeni, a warlike people, who laid waste the
country of the Barolongs. The Tammahas live north-east-
* Geograph. Journal, iii. 317- Mr. Thompson says this name is more correctly
Matclhapees.
+ Thompson’s Travels, i. p. 242. ‘
ward of the Batclapls ; the Murutsi, again further in the same
'direction ; - an d the WankitsPto the westward of the latter.*
The wandering-savages termed Mantatees, or Fieani, who
travel through the interior country In-hordes consisting of
many thousand .men, are of the >same- race. The barbarous
horde,'which plundered? Litâku^consisted of,at least forty
thousand. The men are described as tall and muscular, hav-
ing their bodies smeafed''0irer -with a,mixture of coal and pitch.
Their natural célour is scatéely :a.;tehade darker than that of
the Matclhapees^ * whom they neaTly$j|hsemble in features.
Their language^ is'a diale^of tb^SMhuana'.f
In; the same division ®f'the Kafir raee we ma^iperhaps comprise
the various tiibeS: ^enumerated by Mr.1'1 Oàmfpbeli to the
northward of the-Beéhuana cotmtry: .We are informed'% a
late traveller that the Sichuana dialect is Spoken by the tribes
in the interior" so far as they have yet: been \qsit%||ihnd varies
but slightly from the idioms of the Barnard andfthe Balagtians)
on the two opposite coasts of Africa. - The Amak osait to n ^^ J
spoken also by the Amatymbah and other adjoinifgè tribes,
differs more considerably from that of thbBechsuanaJ&but not
to such a degTeei’âs to constitute a diffélen'i-lih^uage.^l1“ The
body of all these dialects is the same, and whatever may be
‘the diversities of idiom.and construction among them, it has
been found that natives of-several tribes,:«wh^lroftptf 'into
contact, are able, after a very little-'practice, toHiBnverse
fluently with each other,”
; The habits and mode of life dre/very similar amongall these
tribes.
The information obtained by Mr. Campbell,' i and other
travellers in the interior of the Bechuana ebuntty, has been
summed up in a brief memoir by-Mr. Gootejr^ publi^h^pn
the third volume of the - Geographical Journal.^ following
are the most remarkable observations :
Both Lichtenstein and Barrow ^{griefe in representing the
Amakosah as greatly elevated above the'savage state:
“ The Bechfiana tribes, situated in the interior, threêhundred
.•.Thompson’s Travels, p.243. ■ + Ibid. p. 305. J Ibid. p. 332.
§ A Memoir on the Civilization of, the Tribes inhabiting the Highlands near
Dalagoa Bay, (abridged,) by W. D. Cooley, in 3rd vol. of Geogr. Jour? p. 3L0.