in such a case we should accommodate the sound of the word in the possessive case to that with which the word in the nominative case began. And if we did this, we should assuredly do something very remarkable in the way of speech. Now the Kaffre tongues all do this. It is done by the Amakosa, the Zulu, the Fingo, the Bechuana. It is done by the languages on the western coast as far as the Cameroons, i.e., to the north of the equator—by the languages of Benguela, Angola, Congo, Loango, and the Gaboon, &c. It is done by the languages on the eastern coast as well; indeed, it was very probably done by the language of the Moegurras. It is done, so far as we know, by all the languages of the interior south of the equator—save and except those of the Hottentot class. It is certainly done by the languages of the Great Lake Ngami.
The Kaffre division, then, is a large one; and it is based, chiefly, on similarity of language. In physical form, the range of difference is great. Some of the Kaffres are truly negro, others brown in colour, and with lips of moderate thickness. The Zulus before us certainly approach the negro.
On the other hand, more than one good writer has enlarged upon the points of contrast; and such there certainly are, if we take the more extreme forms—the typical Kaffre and typical Negro. In the latter, for instance, the skin (as aforesaid) may be brown rather than black. Then the cheek-bones may project outwards; and where the cheek-bones so project beyond a certain limit, the chin appears to taper downwards, and the vertex upwards. When this becomes exaggerated, we hear of lozenge-shaped skulls. Be this as it may, the breadth in the malar portion of the face is often a remarkable feature in the Kaffre physiognomy. This he has in common with the Hottentot. Sometimes, too, the eye is oblique; the opening generally narrow.
An opinion often gives a better picture than a description. Kaffres, that have receded in the greatest degree from the negro type, have been so likened to the more southern Arabs, as to have engendered the hypothesis of an infusion of Arab blood.
The manners of the Kaffres of the Cape are those of pastoral tribes under chieftains; tribes which, from their habits and social relations, are naturally active, locomotive, warlike, and jealous of encroachment.
It would be strange indeed if the Kaffre life and Kaffre physiognomy had no peculiarities. However little in the way of physical influence we may attribute to the geography of a country, no man ignores them altogether. Now Kaffreland has very nearly a latitude of its own; inhabited lands similarly related to the southern tropic being found in South America and Australia only. And it has a soil still more exclusively South-African. We connect the idea of the desert with that of sand; whilst steppe is a term which is limited to the vast tracts of central Asia. Now the Kaffre, and still more the Hottentot, area, dry like the desert, and elevated like the steppe, is called a karro. Its soil is often a hard, cracked, and parched clay rather than a waste of sand, and it constitutes an argillaceous table-land.
Their polity and manners, too, are peculiar. The head-man of the village settles disputes, his tribunal being in the open air. From him an appeal lies to a chief of higher power; and from him to some superior, higher still. In this way there is a long chain of feudal or semi-feudal dependency.
The wife is the slave to the husband; and he buys her in order that she should be so. The purchase implies a seller. This is always a member of another tribe. Hence the wish of a Kaffre is to see his wife the mother of many children, girls being more valuable than boys.
Why a man should not sell his offspring to the members of his own tribe is uncertain. It is clear, however, that the practice of doing so makes marriage between even distant relations next to impossible. To guard against the chances of this, a rigid and suspicious system of restraint has been developed in cases of consanguinity; and relations must do all they can to avoid meeting. To sit in the same room, to meet on the same road, is undesirable. To converse is but just allowable, and then all who choose must hear what is said. So thorough, however, has been the isolation in many cases, that persons of different sexes have lived as near neighbours for many years without having conversed with each other; and such communication as there has been, has taken place through the medium of a third person. No gift will induce a Kaffre female to violate this law.
B. The Bushmen, too, are taken from life, the two children being in England at the present time.