Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/228

 174 SOUTH AND EST AFRICA. The Am-Kosas and Galekas. The Ama-Kosas (Khosa, Xosa) were till recently the masters and oppressors of the Fingos, to whom they were at last compelled to surrender the western districts of the Transkei and the valleys stretching thence to the Great Fish River. Of all the Kafir nations the Ama-Kosas have suffered most from their protracted wars with the Europeans. Lying in the immediate vicinity of the English settlers, they were the first to attack and the first to feel the superiority of the white race. But still mindful of their past glories, they nevertheless continued to regard them- selves as the noblest branch of the Kafir family, and the surrounding tribes readily recognised their claim to the foremost position. In any case they differ little from their neighbours, except in their tribal groupings and political traditions. Even their national speech can scarcely be distinguished from the other dialects current in the whole region of the seaboard as far north as Delagoa Bay. Nor has their tribal name any special ethnical value, for the Ama-Kosas, like most other Kafir groups, are named after some chief famous in the national records. Of the Ama-Kosas the chief historical divisions are the Galekas and the Gaikas, who also take their hames from illustrious chiefs, reputed founders of these tribes. But the Gaikas have almost disappeared as a distinct group. Removed in the year 1851 to the west of the river Kei, to a territory which has long been settled by British colonists, they have been dispersed amongst the farm- steads and outskirts of the towns, as day labourers and domestic servants, and thus gradually become merged with the rest of the population. The Gaika tribe is in fact completely broken, and has lost all sense of its national unity. But the Galekas still dwell in a compact body on their own tribal domain. This district comprises nearly half of the whole territory comprised between the livers Kei and Bashee. Here they constituted in 1875 a united population of nearly seventy thousand souls. Thej-^ are thus by far the most numerous branch of the Ama-Kosa Kafirs, who number altogether not much more than a hundred thousand. Most of the Galekas have preserved their ancient habits and customs. The young man still purchases his bride with so many head of cattle, and the number of his wives stands in direct proportion to his means. But it is not the women, as amongst the Bechuanas, but the men, who in Kafirland milk the cows. No woman would even be tolerated within the sacred enclosure reserved for the cattle, her mere presence being regarded as a profanation. Here the wife is held in contempt and treated as a slave. She is forbidden to pronounce the nanfe of any male member of the household ; nor dare she even utter sounds or syllables occurring in such names, and is thus compelled to invent a new vocabulary differing from that of the men. Ill-favoured children are killed, while the well-formed are pricked in vavious parts of the body, a little protecting amulet being inserted under the skin, after which both infant and mother are rubbed over with red ochre. The chiefs are great personages, placed above the laws by which other mortals are governed. They have the right to confiscate their subjects' property, and the privilege is even extended to their sons, who steal and plunder withojit let or