The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-01-21
kAFFlRS OF AFRICA.
THEIR APPEARANCE AND DOMESTIC
NiANNtRS AND CUSTOMS.
Scanty Costume Is Popular and Home
Life Is Polysamous--Some North.
eastern Tribes Work in
Iron for Weapons.

For some reason of scientific exactitude
connected with the transliteration of
Arabic and other extremely foreign Ian
guages with written characters utterly
unlike English. the ethnologists and phil
ologists prefer to spell the name k-a-f-i-r.
Properly. II Is only negative designation.
Like welsh" and "Walloon," both
meaning strange which Is the English
and the Fleming, respectively, applied to
the Celtic races with whom they came In
contact. ''Kaffir" was the general term,
meaning ''unbeliever," applied by the
Arabs of Africa to the fighting races with
whom they came in contact In southeast
ern Africa. Nowadays 1t is limited by the
book learned to the tribes which are
scattered about the country, roughly
speaking, bounded on the north by the
Tekezas on the west by the Bechuanas
and Basutos and on the south by what
is left of the Hottentots. In other words,
Kaffraria. ethnologicaly regarded, in
cludes all Zululand and some of Portu-
guese East Africa, with the whole of Ma
tai.
But the hunter and the miner of the
Rand and of the Karoo are not hookmen.
as a class, and, aiming at convenience
rather than exactness of perspicuity, they
apply the term "Kaffir' to almost any
native In those parts much as the SOUTH
ern white calls any one with dash of
negro blood a niger" Many of the
blacks who so to Kimberley To work in
the diamond mines and are shut up there
In the huge Enclosures. or barracks to
guard against their larcenous proclivities
during the terms of their service, are
really Kaffirs, and the rest-Bechuanas,
Basutos and so on-are of races closely
akin to the Kafir race. Their domestic
habits and the tenor of their daily lives
at home are all much alike. 1t is chiefly
IN his tribal organization that the Kaffir
proper, especially the Zulu, differs from
and excels his neighbors and congeners.
The home life of the Kaffr Is conducted
upon the polygamous system, modified by
strict tribal laws and pecuniary facts. The
kaffr young man. when his tribe is not
hampered In Its internal administration
by the interference of white commission
ers. is not allowed to marry at all until
he has washed his assegai." No soap
known to civilization is fit for this wash
ing; 1t must be done with human blood,
and the blood of enemies of the tribe.
Here, according to the friends of Cete-
wayo, was that hero's excuse for his out
break in 1878 and 1879: II sought no war
with the English. The Dutch are our
enemies, and my young men clamored
before me Tor leave to wash their spears"
Having washed his spear creditably, the
young man Is allowed by his law to car
ry a wife, II he can collect enough cattle
for the wedding fee, which is paid to her
father. who is her owner. The payment
and acceptance of this fee is the essence
of the ceremony, but the ceremony once
complete the union has a stability, among
the Zulus at least. which more civilized
tribes elsewhere might well emulate.
The bridegroom shaves his head all but
a ring OF wool left high up on the crown.
The bride shaves her head. except for a
tuft left on the top. This topknot is their
idea of the lovely in matronly coiffure.
They have decided ideas of their own as
to feminine loneliness, and according to
these ideas are keen critics of complexion
One of the signs that the origin of the
Kaffirs az a homogeneous race Is compare
lively recent is the variety of tone in
their skins-some few inky black. others
varying shades of rich coffee color They
themselves esteem most highly the deep
est black, with warm, red tone, and this
complexion constitutes one of the charms
OF the ANA Tembu bellies, whose prices
run as high as forty head of good cattle,
while ten head is good price for lady
OF less favored breed.
When provided with one wife as a basis
OF housekeeping, the young man goes to
work to start an Independent kraal (pro-
nounced "crawP). This word Is Dutch,
the Kaff1r to which it corresponds being
umuzi. 1t is a sconical or hemispherical
waffle affair, with a ground plan from
opening two feet high by eighteen inches
wide serving as door. window and Chin
ney. Inside the floor Is of hard, smooth
clay, followed out slightly in the center