The Ethnology of the British Colonies and Dependencies Part 6

"To our great comfort, even some of these poor outcasts have shown eagerness to become acquainted with the way of salvation. The children of such as are inhabitants of the settlement, attend the school diligently, and of them we have the best hopes.

"The language of the Bushman has not one pleasing feature; it seems to consist of a collection of snapping, hissing, grunting, sounds; all more or less nasal. Of their religious creed it is difficult to obtain any information; as far as I have been able to learn, they have a name for the Supreme Being; and the Kaffre word _tixo_ is derived from the _tixme_ of the Bushmen. Sorcerers exist among them. One of the Bushmen residing here being sick, a sorceress was sent for before we were aware of it, who pretended, by the virtue of mystic dance, to extract an antelope horn from the head of the patient."[20]

_The Griquas._--The Griquas, called also Baastaards, are a pastoral population, upwards of 15,000 in number, on the north side of the great bend of the Orange River. They are the descendants of Dutch fathers and Hottentot mothers.

A mixture of Griquas and Hottentots occurs also on the Kat River, a feeder of the Great Fish River, in the district of Somerset, and on the Kaffre frontier. Here they are distributed in a series of district locations, amid the dales and fastnesses of the eastern frontier. A great proportion of them are discharged soldiers--so that in reality, like the borderers of old, they form a sort of military colony.

2. _The Kaffres._--The British districts in contact with the Kaffre populations are the eastern, and of these Albany and Somerset most especially. The Kaffre nation in most immediate contact with Albany and Somerset is--

_The Amakosa._--This is the population which const.i.tuted the authority of Hintza, and to which Pato, Gaika, and the other chiefs of the last war belonged. To this, too, belong the troublesome chiefs of the present. Next to the Amakosa, and in alliance with them, come--

_The Amatembu_, or _Tambuki_ (_Tambookies_), occupants of the upper part of the river Kei, as the Amakosa are of the lower Keiskamma.

Between the Amatembu and Port Natal lie _the Amaponda_, or _Mambuki_ (_Mambookies_), the northern extremity of which reaches the country of--

_The Amazulu_, or _Zulu_ (_Zooloos_), the chief frontagers (conjointly with the _Mambuki_) of Port Natal.

The last division of the Kaffres of the coast is that of--

_The Fingos._--In 1835, a numerous population, called Fingos, was found by Sir B. D'Urban in the Kaffre chief Hintza's country, and in a state of abject servitude to the Amakosas. They were from different tribes; darker and shorter than the Amakosas--but still true Kaffres. They were offered land between the lower Keiskamma and the Great Fish River, and were emanc.i.p.ated and brought safe into the colony to the amount of 17,000.[21] Since then, they have served as a sort of military police on the Kaffre frontier; and as shepherds in Australia--whither they have been advantageously introduced.

But, besides the Kaffres of the coast there are those of the interior.

These speak a modified form of the Kosa (or Amakosa), called Si-_chuana_, the name of the people being Bi-_chuana_. They lie due north of the Koranas; beyond the boundaries of the colony; but not beyond the influence of its missionaries, or the range of its explorers.

Litaku, Kurrichani, and other similar _towns_ are _Sichuana_; the Kaffre civilization being said to attain its _maximum_ hereabouts.

There are plenty of points of contrast between the Kaffre and the typical Negro; so many indeed as to have suggested the doctrine that the former cla.s.s belongs to some division of the human species other than the African. And these points of contrast are widely distributed, _i.e._, they appear and re-appear, whatever may be the view taken of the Kaffre stock. They appear in the descriptions of their skin and skeletons; they appear in the notice of their language; and they appear in the history of the Kaffre wars of the Cape frontier--wars more obstinate and troublesome than any which have been conducted by the true Negro; and which approach the character of the Kabyle struggle for independence in Algeria. In investigating these differences we must guard against the exaggeration of their import.

Physically, the Kaffre has the advantage of the Negro in the conformation of the face and skull. His forehead betokens greater capacity; being more prominent, more vaulted, and with a greater facial angle. His teeth, too, are more vertically inserted, and the nasal bones less depressed. I have not heard of aquiline noses in Kaffraria; but should not be surprised if I did.

The cheek-bones of the Kaffre 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_ crania; the Malay skulls being currently quoted as instances thereof. Be this as it may, the breadth in the malar portion of the face is a remarkable feature in the Kaffre physiognomy. This he has in common with the Hottentot. His hair is also tufted like the Hottentot's: while his lips are thick like the Negro's. Tall in stature, wiry and elastic in his muscles, the Kaffre varies in colour, through all the shades of black and brown; being, in some portions of his area nearly as dark as the Negro, in others simply brown like the Arab. The eye is sometimes 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.

Next to marauding on the hunting-grounds of an American Indian, interference with the pasture of a shepherd population is the surest way to warfare.

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 lat.i.tude 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 partially a _karro_. Its soil is often a hard, cracked, and parched clay rather than a waste of sand, and it const.i.tutes an argillaceous table-land. Its vegetation has strongly marked characters. Its Fauna has the same.

The language is peculiar. If English were spoken on Kosa or Sichuana principles we should say

_b_un beam instead of _s_un beam.

_l_oon light ... _m_oon light.

_s_rand-son ... _g_rand-son, &c.,

since, in the Kaffre languages throughout, subordinate words in certain syntactic combinations, accommodate their initial letter to that of the leading word of the term.

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.

But the power of the chief is checked by that of the priest. A supposed skill in medicine, imaginary arts of divination, and an accredited power over the elements are the prerogatives of certain witches and wizards.

Thus, when a murrain among the cattle, or the death of an important individual has taken place, the blame is laid upon some unfortunate victim whom the witch or wizard points out. And the ordeal to which he must submit, is equal in cruelty to those of the Gold Coast. He is beaten with sticks, and then pegged down to the ground. Whilst thus helpless, a nest of venomous bush-ants is broken over his racked and quivering body. If this fail to extort a confession, he is singed to death with red-hot stones.

This tells us what is meant by Kaffre chiefs and Kaffre wizards.

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 s.e.xes 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.

Is the immolation of human beings at the death of chieftains a Kaffre custom, as it was one of western Africa? The following extract gives an answer in the affirmative, the only difference being the _pretext_ of the murders. On the "death of the mother of Chaka, the great Zulu chief, a public mourning was held, which lasted for the s.p.a.ce of two days, the people being a.s.sembled at the kraal of the chief to the number of sixty or eighty thousand souls. Mr. Fynn, who was present, describes the scene as the most terrific which it is possible for the human mind to conceive. The immense mult.i.tude were all engaged in rending the air with the most doleful shrieks, and discordant cries and lamentations; whilst, in the event of their ceasing to utter them, they were instantly butchered as guilty of a crime against the reigning tyrant. It is said that no less than six or seven thousand persons were destroyed on this occasion, charged with no other offence than exhausted nature in the performance of this horrid rite, their brains being mercilessly dashed out amidst the surrounding throng. As a suitable _finale_ to this dreadful tragedy, it is said that ten females were actually buried alive with the royal corpse; whilst all who witnessed the funeral were obliged to remain on the spot for a whole year."

Details of Kaffre manners may be multiplied almost _ad infinitum_; and as their history and habits are likely to fill a Blue Book, a short treatise can only notice their more prominent peculiarities.

However, lest an undue inference be drawn from their contrast to the Hottentot, we must remember that the former has encroached upon the latter, and that such transitional populations as existed have been swept away.

Now comes a coloured population--not indigenous, but the descendants of the _slaves_ of the colony. This consists of--

1. Negroes.

2. Malays from the Indian Archipelago.

3. Malagasi from Madagascar.

To which we must add, as of mixed blood, the offspring of--

1. Negroes and Dutch, English, &c.

2. Malays and Dutch, English, &c.

3. Malagasi and Dutch, English, &c.

This seems to be the limit of the intermixture; since, between the Malays and Negroes, &c., there is but little intermarriage. The _possible_ elements, however, of hybridity are numerous, _e.g._, Griquas and Negroes, Griquas and Malays, Malays and Kaffres, &c.

_The so-called yellow men._--On the 4th of August, 1782, the "Grosvenor" Indiaman was wrecked on the coast of Natal. Of the crew who escaped, some reached the Cape and others remained amongst the natives.

In 1790, an expedition was undertaken in search of them.

In this expedition, Mr. Van Reenens, considered that he had discovered a village where the people were descended from the whites, and in which there were three old women who had been wrecked when very young. They could not tell to what country they belonged; were treated as superior beings; and, when offered a safe convoy to the Cape, were at first pleased with the prospect, but eventually refused to leave their children and grandchildren. Now, whatever these old women were, they were not of the crew of the "Grosvenor," and I doubt whether they were Europeans at all.

Again--Mr. Thomson, when at Litaku, heard of yellow _cannibals_, with long hair, whose invasions were the dread of the country; a statement which merely means that some tribes of South Africa, are lighter coloured, and more savage in their appet.i.te than others.

Lastly, Lieutenant Farewell saw one of these yellow men at Natal, who was described as a cannibal, and _who shrunk abashed from the lieutenant_.

Be it so. The evidence that "there are descendants of Europeans and Africans now widely diffusing their offspring throughout the country; whose services might be turned to good account in civilizing the native tribes," is still incomplete.

_Mauritius._--The coloured population, which is far greater than that of the white, consists in the Mauritius of--

1. True Africans--chiefly from the east coast, and, consequently, of the Kaffre stock; the word being used in its most general sense. Darker than the Kaffres of the Cape, they, nevertheless, recede from the Negro type in the shape of the jaw, lips, and forehead. The hair also is less woolly. They are strong and powerful individuals.

2. Malagasi, or natives of Madagascar.--These are _not_ Africans to the same extent as the Kaffres of the coast. As far back as the time of Reland it was known that the affinities of the Malagasi language were with the Malay and Polynesian tongues of Asia; but it was also known that the similarity in physiognomy was less than that of language. Hence came a conflict of difficulties. The speech indicated one origin, the colour another--whilst the fact of an island so near to Africa, and so far from Malacca, as Madagascar, being other than what its geographical position indicated, is, and has been, a mystery. Some writers have a.s.sumed an intermixture of blood; others have limited the Malay element to the dominant population. Lastly, Mr. Crawfurd has denied the inferences from the similarity of language _in toto_; considering that there is "nothing in common between the two races, and nothing in common between the character of their languages." The comparative philologist is slow to admit this--indeed, he denies it.