290 PHYSICAL CHARACTERS
buki Kafirs -.r^ They are of a middle stature and well made,
with oval faces, and noses neither flat nor high, but well proportioned.
The,,colour pfv, their- ^kin is black, aq‘d their hair
crisped: their teeth are white, and their aspect altogether
graceful.” -
Professor Lichtenstein has bestow® more pains, on.the.
history, of this people,: and has done, more to elucidate it than
any other writer. He says that in respect to ths^colour of the
Kafirs, Mr. Barrow is certainly mistaken, and that their universal
complexion is rather of a clear than a dark brown.
Lichtenstein has given the following descriptiori as generally
applicable to the Kafir nation:
~ “ The universal characteristics of all the tribes of thii gfeeat
nation consist in an external form and figure varying eiceetf-
higly from the other nations of Africa. They are much taller,’
stronger, and their limbs much better proportioned. Their
colour is brown—their hair black and woolly. Their; countenances
have a character peculiar td themselVes, and which dp
not permit their being included m any of the | ^ S o f mankind
above enumerated. They have the high and prominent
nose of the Europeans, the thiek lips of the'Negfoel,4and
the high cheek-bones of the Hottentots. ’; Their beards are
black and much fuller than those of the Hoften t^ii^l
“ Their language is full-toned, soft, and harmonious, and
spoken without clattering: their root-words are of :orie and
two syllables—their sound simple, without diphthongs. Their
pronunciation is slow and distinct, resting'upon the last syllable.
Their dialects differ in the different tribes; but the
most distant ones understand each other.”
“ Mr. Barrow remarks very rightly that the Caffres have,
in many respects, a great resemblance to Europeans, and indeed
they have more resemblance to them than either to Negroes
or Hottentots ; this resemblance is to be remarked particularly
in the form of the bones of the face, and in the shape
of the skull. Their countenance has, however, something in
it wholly appropriate to themselves, which, no less than their
colour, and the woolly nature of their hair, distinguishes them,
at the first glance, from Europeans. From both the latter
characteristics the translators of Mr. Barrow’s "Travels derive