KAFIRS, klifqlrz. Tribes of negroes, belong ing to the great Bantu family inhabiting the southeastern coast of Africa. They are tall (1.715 m.), slim, and well built; skin of various shades of dark brown; hair thick, harsh, and woolly; nose broad and flat; lips thick; strong skin odor. Skull capacity, 1453 ce., cephalic in dex, or ratio of head-width to head-length, 72.3. Under the general title are included the Ama Xosas of West Kafirland; Arna-Ternim (Tam bukies) of Tambuland; Ama-Mpondo of Pondo land ; .\ma-Baka. Ama-Mpondosi, and Arna Nexibe, of East Griqualand ; and Ama-Fingu of Finguland, west of Tamhuland. At. one time their dominion covered a wider territory than at present, and doubtless in their turn they had driven out the original Hottentot-Bushman abo rigines. The Kafirs are for the"most part cattle breeders, though they raise millet, maize, yams, melons, and various vegetables, which, with milk, form their diet. They eat meat only when fight ing, and cattle are a medium of exchange, a bride costing from ten to a hundred head. Their houses are coin-shaped and are grouped in vil lages called kraals; hut the care of their immense herds demands much moving about. In this connection it is worthy of mention that prhnitive methods of irrigation were in vogue. The women are the farmers and drudges, and their industrial apparatus is of the rudest sort. The Kafir is essentially a warrior. Ilis feuds with the Bushmen and his Inter wars with Dutch and English have developed in him mental and physical qualities far above those of the true negroes. Ilis weapons are the knob-kerry, or
striking and throwing club, and assegais or latices for hurling or for thrusting, and he carries a decorated shield of oxhide almost as high as the wearer. The warriors formerly wore toga-like cloaks of leopard-skins or oxhide, and paid great attention to dressing the hair. The government of the Kafirs is an absolute chieftaincy, the tribes all being under the hereditary sovereign or 1 nkose, who is father, legislator, administrator, chief justice, and commander-in-chief. There is be sides a supreme council of chiefs over which he presides, and their decisions are the law of the land. The family, the clan, and the tribe is each responsible' for all the actions of its mem bers. In religious beliefs the Kafirs are on a much higher plane than most other African tribes. This is shown. for example. by the dele gation of a maiden daughter of the chief as custodian of the sacred fire, and whose entice to purify the herds. Somewhat elevated con ceptions of a future life were entertained by the Kafiri:. Their type of religion was an ad vanced grade of ancestor-worship. A dead chief was buried in the cattle kraal with an extended ceremony of interment and mourning. The spirits of the dead are supposed to return and take part in the councils of the tribe, being represented by a branch of his elan tree in which the spirit is thought to be present.