COURSE OF A KAFFIR’S LIFE -- INFANCY -- COLOR OF THE NEW-BORN
BABE -- THE MEDICINE-MAN AND HIS DUTIES -- KAFFIR VACCINATION --
SINGULAR TREATMENT OF A CHILD -- A CHILD’S FIRST ORNAMENT -- CURIOUS
SUPERSTITION -- MOTHER AND CHILD -- THE SKIN-CRADLE -- DESCRIPTION
OF A CRADLE BELONGING TO A CHIEF’S WIFE -- KINDNESS OF PARENTS TO
CHILDREN OF BOTH SEXES -- THE FUTURE OF A KAFFIR FAMILY, AND THE
ABSENCE OF ANXIETY -- INFANTICIDE ALMOST UNKNOWN -- CEREMONY ON
PASSING INTO BOYHOOD -- DIFFERENT THEORIES RESPECTING ITS CHARACTER
AND ORIGIN -- TCHAKA’S ATTEMPTED ABOLITION OF THE RITE -- CURIOUS
IDEA OF THE KAFFIRS, AND RESUMPTION OF THE CEREMONY -- A KAFFIR’S
DREAD OF GRAY HAIRS -- IMMUNITIES AFTER UNDERGOING THE RITE -- NEW
RECRUITS FOR REGIMENTS, AND THEIR VALUE TO THE KING -- THE CEREMONY
INCUMBENT ON BOTH SEXES.
Having glanced rapidly over the principal traits of Kaffir character,
we will proceed to trace his life with somewhat more detail.
When an infant is born, it is, as has been already mentioned, of a
light hue, and does not gain the red-black of its parents until after
some little time has elapsed. The same phenomenon takes place with
the negro of Western Africa. Almost as soon as the Kaffir is born the
“medicine-man” is called, and discharges his functions in a manner very
different from “medical men” in our own country. He does not trouble
himself in the least about the mother, but devotes his whole care to
the child, on whom he performs an operation something like that of
vaccination, though not for the same object. He makes small incisions
on various parts of the body, rubs medicine into them, and goes his
way. Next day he returns, takes the unhappy infant, deepens the cuts,
and puts more medicine into them. The much-suffering child is then
washed, and is dried by being moved about in the smoke of a wood fire.
Surviving this treatment by some singular tenacity of life, the little
creature is then plentifully bedaubed with red paint, and the proud
mother takes her share of the adornment. This paint is renewed as fast
as it wears off, and is not discontinued until after a lapse of several
months.
[Illustration: CRADLE.]
“Once,” writes Mr. Shooter, “when I saw this paint put on, the mother
had carefully washed a chubby boy, and made him clean and bright. She
then took up the fragment of an earthenware pot, which contained a
red fluid, and, dipping her fingers into it, proceeded to daub her
son until he became the most grotesque-looking object it was ever my
fortune to behold. What remained, being too precious to waste, was
transferred to her own face.” Not until all these absurd preliminaries
are completed, is the child allowed to take its natural food; and it
sometimes happens that when the “medicine-man” has delayed his coming,
the consequences to the poor little creature have been extremely
disastrous. After the lapse of a few days, the mother goes about her
work as usual, carrying the child strapped on her back, and, in spite
of the load, she makes little, if any, difference in the amount of
her daily tasks. And, considering that all the severe work falls upon
the women, it is wonderful that they should contrive to do any work
at all under the circumstances. The two principal tasks of the women
are, breaking up the ground with a heavy and clumsy tool, something
between a pickaxe and a mattock, and grinding the daily supply of corn
between two stones, and either of these tasks would prove quite enough
for any ordinary laborer, though the poor woman has to perform both,
and plenty of minor tasks besides. That they should have to do all this
work, while laboring under the incumbrance of a heavy and growing child
hung on the back, does really seem very hard upon the women. But they,
having never known any other state of things, accept their laborious
married life as a matter of course.
When the mother carries her infant to the field, she mostly slings
it to her back by means of a wide strip of some soft skin, which she
passes round her waist so as to leave a sort of pocket behind in which
the child may lie. In this primitive cradle the little creature reposes
in perfect content, and not even the abrupt movements to which it is
necessarily subjected will disturb its slumbers.
The wife of a chief or wealthy man will not, however, rest satisfied
with the mere strip of skin by way of a cradle, but has one of an
elaborate and ornamental character. The illustration represents a
remarkably fine example of the South African cradle, and is drawn from
a specimen in my collection.
It is nearly two feet in length by one in width, and is made of
antelope skin, with the hair still remaining. The first care of the
maker has been to construct a bag, narrow toward the bottom, gradually
widening until within a few inches of the opening, when it again
contracts. This form very effectually prevents an active or restless
child from falling out of its cradle. The hairy side of the skin is
turned inward, so that the little one has a soft and pleasant cradle in
which to repose. In order to give it this shape, two “gores” have been
let into the back of the cradle, and are sewed with that marvellous
neatness which characterizes the workmanship of the Kaffir tribes. Four
long strips of the same skin are attached to the opening of the cradle,
and by means of them the mother can bind her little one securely on her
back.
As far as usefulness goes, the cradle is now complete, but the woman
is not satisfied unless ornament be added. Though her rank--the wife
of a chief--does not exonerate her from labor, she can still have the
satisfaction of showing her position by her dress, and exciting envy
among her less fortunate companions in the field. The entire front of
the cradle is covered with beads, arranged in regular rows. In this
specimen, two colors only are used; namely, black and white. The black
beads are polished glass, while the others are of the color which are
known as “chalk-white,” and which is in great favor with the Kaffirs,
on account of the contrast which it affords to their dusky skin. The
two central rows are black. The cradle weighs rather more than two
pounds, half of which is certainly due to the profusion of beads with
which it is covered.
Except under peculiar circumstances, the Kaffir mother is a kind, and
even indulgent parent to her children. There are, however, exceptional
instances, but, in these cases, superstition is generally the moving
power. As with many nations in different parts of the earth, although
abundance of children is desired, twins are not in favor; and when they
make their appearance one of them is sacrificed, in consequence of a
superstitious notion that, if both twins are allowed to live, something
unlucky would happen to the parents.
As the children grow, a certain difference in their treatment
is perceptible. In most savage nations, the female children are
comparatively neglected, and very ill treatment falls on them, while
the males are considered as privileged to do pretty well what they
like without rebuke. This, however, is not the case with the Kaffirs.
The parents have plenty of respect for their sons as the warriors of
the next generation, but they have also respect for their daughters as
a source of wealth. Every father is therefore glad to see a new-born
child, and welcomes it whatever may be its sex--the boys to increase
the power of his house, the girls to increase the number of his cattle.
He knows perfectly well that, when his little girl is grown up, he
can obtain at least eight cows for her, and that, if she happens to
take the fancy of a rich or powerful man, he may be fortunate enough
to procure twice the number. And, as the price which is paid to the
father of a girl depends very much on her looks and condition, she
is not allowed to be deteriorated by hard work or ill-treatment.
These generally come after marriage, and, as the wife does not expect
anything but such treatment, she does not dream of complaining.
The Kaffir is free from the chief anxieties that attend a large family
in civilized countries. He knows nothing of the thousand artificial
wants which cluster round a civilized life, and need not fear lest
his offspring should not be able to find a subsistence. Neither is
he troubled lest they should sink below that rank in which they were
born. Not that there are no distinctions of rank in Kaffirland. On
the contrary, there are few parts of the world where the distinctions
of rank are better appreciated, or more clearly defined. But, any one
may attain the rank of chief, provided that he possesses the mental or
physical characteristics that can raise him above the level of those
who surround him, and, as is well known, some of the most powerful
monarchs who have exercised despotic sway in Southern Africa have
earned a rank which they could not have inherited, and have created
monarchies where the country had formerly been ruled by a number of
independent chieftains. These points may have some influence upon the
Kaffir’s conduct as a parent, but, whatever may be the motives, the
fact remains, that among this fine race of savages there is no trace of
the wholesale infanticide which is so terribly prevalent among other
nations, and which is accepted as a social institution among some that
consider themselves among the most highly civilized of mankind.
As is the case in many parts of the world, the natives of South
Africa undergo a ceremony of some sort, which marks their transition
from childhood to a more mature age. There has been rather a sharp
controversy respecting the peculiar ceremony which the Kaffirs enjoin,
some saying that it is identical with the rite of circumcision as
practised by the Jews, and others that such a custom does not exist.
The fact is, that it used to be universal throughout Southern Africa,
until that strange despot, Tchaka, chose arbitrarily to forbid it
among the many tribes over which he ruled. Since his death, however,
the custom has been gradually re-introduced, as the men of the tribes
believed that those who had not undergone the rite were weaker than
would otherwise have been the case, and were more liable to gray hairs.
Now with a Kaffir a hoary head is by no means a crown of glory, but is
looked upon as a sign of debility. A chief dreads nothing so much as
the approach of gray hairs, knowing that the various sub-chiefs, and
other ambitious men who are rising about him, are only too ready to
detect any sign of weakness, and to eject him from his post. Europeans
who visit elderly chiefs are almost invariably asked if they have any
preparation that will dye their gray hairs black. So, the dread of such
a calamity occurring at an early age would be quite sufficient to make
a Kaffir resort to any custom which he fancied might prevent it.
After the ceremony, which is practised in secret, and its details
concealed with inviolable fidelity, the youths are permitted three
months of unlimited indulgence: doing no work, and eating, sleeping,
singing, and dancing, just as they like. They are then permitted to
bear arms, and, although still called “boys,” are trained as soldiers
and drafted into different regiments. Indeed, it is mostly from these
regiments that the chief selects the warriors whom he sends on the
most daring expeditions. They have nothing to lose and everything to
gain, and, if they distinguish themselves, may be allowed to assume the
“head-ring,” the proud badge of manhood, and to marry as many wives
as they can manage to pay for. A “boy”--no matter what his age might
be--would not dare to assume the head-ring without the permission
of his chief, and there is no surer mode of gaining permission than
by distinguished conduct in the field, whether in open fight, or in
stealing cattle from the enemy.
The necessity for undergoing some rite when emerging from childhood
is not restricted to the men, but is incumbent on the girls, who are
carried off into seclusion by their initiators, and within a year from
their initiation are allowed to marry.