the inhabitants of Cafraria, are generally confounded with the Hottentots; but, according to M. Vaillant, there is a considerable difference between the manners, customs, and even appearance of these two nations.

The Caffres, says he, are generally taller than the Hottentots, more robust, more fierce, and much bolder. Their figure is likewise more agreeable, and their countenances have not that narrowness at the bottom, nor their cheeks those prominences, which are so disagreeable among the Hottentots. A round figure, a nose not too flat, a broad forehead, and large eyes, give them an open and lively air; and if prejudice can overlook the colour of the skin, there are some Caffre women who, even in Europe, would be accounted pretty. These people do not make their faces ridiculous, by pulling out their eye-brows like the Hottentots; they tattoo themselves much, and particularly their bodies; their hair, which is frizzled very much, is never greased, but their bodies are liberally anointed, merely with a view to preserve their vigour and agility.

The men generally below more attention on their dress than the women, and are remarkably fond of beads and copper rings. The women wear hardly any of the ornaments in which the other savages in Africa take such delight. They do not even wear copper bracelets; but their small aprons, which are still shorter than those of the Hottentots, are bordered with a few rows of glass-bands; and in this all their luxury consists. It would appear that the Caffres are not so chaste as the Hottentots, because the men do not use a jackal to vail what nature teaches other men, even savages, to conceal. A small cowl, which covers only the glans, instead of displaying modesty, seems to announce the greatest indecency. This small covering adheres to a thong, which is fastened round their girdles, merely that it may not be lost; for a Caffre, if he be not afraid of being hurt or flung by insects, cares very little whether his cowl be in its place or not. Our author saw one Caffre, who, instead of a cowl, wore a cape made of wood, and ornamented with sculpture. This was a new and ridiculous fashion, which he had borrowed from a nation of black people who lived at a great distance from Cafraria.

In the hot season the Caffres go always naked, and retain nothing but their ornaments. In cold weather they wear kroffes made of calves or oxen's hides, which reach down to the ground; but whatever the weather be, both sexes go bare-headed, except that they sometimes, though rarely, fix a plume of feathers in their hair.

The Caffre huts are more spacious and higher than those of the Hottentots, and have also a more regular form. The frames of them are constructed of wooden work, well put together, and very solid, being intended to last for a long time: for the Caffres, applying to agriculture, which the free Hottentots do not, remain fixed to one spot, unless something unexpected interrupt their repose.

A more perceptible industry, an acquaintance with some of the most necessary arts of life, a little knowledge of agriculture, and a few religious dogmas, seem to announce that the Caffres approach much nearer to civilization than the Hottentots. They entertain a tolerably exalted idea of the Supreme Being and his power; they believe that the good will be rewarded, and the wicked punished, in a future state; but they have no notion of creation, which indeed was not admitted by the sages of Greece and Rome. They practice circumcision, but can give no account of its origin among Polygamy is used among the Caffres; and on the death of a father the male children and their mothers share the succession among them. The girls remain with their mothers without property of any kind until they can procure husbands. One very singular custom of the Caffres is, that they do not, in general, inter their dead, but transport them from the kraal to an open ditch, which is common to the whole horde. At this ditch savage animals feed at their leisure on the multitude of carcasses which are heaped together. Funeral honours are due only to kings and the chiefs of each horde, whose bodies are covered with a heap of stones collected into the form of a dome.

This nation is governed by a general, chief, or king, whose power is very limited. He appoints, however, the subordinate chiefs over the different hordes, and through them communicates his directions or orders. The arms of the Caffre are a club, two feet and a half in length, and where thickest three inches in diameter, and a plain lance or assegai. He despises poisoned arrows, which are so much used by some of the neighbouring nations; and with his two simple weapons seeks always to meet his enemy face to face in the field. The Hotentot, on the contrary, concealed under a rock or behind a bush, deals out destruction, without being exposed to danger. The one is a perfidious tyger, which rushes treacherously on his prey; the other is a generous lion, which, having given warning of his approach, makes his attack boldly, and perishes if he prevail not against his antagonist.