The slopes of the Maluti and the basin of the Caledon are depastured by cattle or covered with wheat or other grain owned by a peasantry each member of which is a good customer to the Colonial trader and possesses his pony, his saddle and his rifle.
One must not however jump to the conclusion that the average Mosuto has raised himself in intellectual capacity or freedom from sensualism and superstition far above the other Bantu tribes. Good government has however so improved his material condition and raised his standard of comfort that it may at least be said that the seeds of civilization are sown on favourable soil.
I am indebted to Mr W. Hammond Tooke, of the Cape Civil Service, for the foregoing facts relating to the ethnology of the “Bantu Tribes.” [[9]]
CHAPTER II.
SOME OBSERVATIONS OF INTEREST IN THE FOLK LORE OF THE KAFFIR.
Before proceeding to enumerate and describe the diseases, as recognised by the natives, their cures and what the Kaffir believes to be their causes, there are several subjects that are of interest in the study of Kaffir Folk Lore which I propose shortly to notice.
The Kaffirs, would be a healthy, long lived people were it not for the excesses of riot they run, in the practice of adultery, drinking, dancing, etc. Their mode of living on simple mixed diet, and practically entirely in the open air, in a fine climate is exceeding favourable to robust health and longevity and perhaps no nation enjoys, on the whole, better health.
When disease does occur in man or animal it is almost invariably ascribed by the Kaffir to [[10]]the agency of human beings, either a living person or as often as not some departed relation who has used witchcraft or “Umtagati.”
Even the vast majority of Mission or school natives who are more or less educated, retain this belief, so deep is it rooted in the native mind, in spite of the fact that Missionaries have preached against it for years.