le. Young Kaffirland likes excitement,
and having little to lose and everything to gain, trusts to his luck for
a _coup_.

The assagy is a formidable weapon in the hands of a Kaffir: it is a
light spear about five or six feet long; an iron blade, of nearly two
feet in length, is fixed in the wood while the iron is red-hot, and the
socket is then incased with the fresh sinews of some animal, which hold
all firmly together as they contract. When preparing to throw the
assagy, the Kaffir holds it about an inch on the wood end of the
balance, the back of the hand down, the first finger and thumb grasping,
and all the other fingers resting on the wood. He continues jerking the
assagy about, to give it the quivering motion that renders it difficult
to avoid; while he occasionally pretends to throw it, to put the man
aimed at off his guard. All this time he continues jumping about,
rushing from side to side, but getting gradually nearer.

Having generally five assagies, he launches them, one after the other,
with great rapidity and certain aim, and with sufficient force to drive
the iron through a man when thrown from fifty to eighty yards' distance,
while some experts can throw them a hundred yards. An assagy may be
dodged when it comes singly, and is seen, but a Kaffir prefers throwing
it when your back is turned, and generally sends a shower of them.
Fortunately the Kaffir nations consider that to poison spears is
despicable. When an assagy is quivering in the hand of a Kaffir, it
appears to be alive: the quivering motion given to it just before
casting continues to affect it during its aerial course.

The _knob-kerries_ (sticks with large heavy knobs on the end) are also
very favourite weapons, and are thrown with great precision. It is a
frequent practice for a dozen or more Kaffirs to go out after quail, and
to knock over great numbers of birds with their sticks.

The Kaffir men assume a vast amount of dignity, and look down upon the
Hottentots, Fingoes, etc., as a very inferior race to themselves.
Gratitude they scarcely seem to know, and charity is looked upon as a
weakness.

I saw a Kaffir come into the commissioner's residence one day to sell
some horses; he made out a most miserable story of his distress, stating
that his cattle had been taken by our soldiers, although he was a most
peaceably disposed man: he was in consequence very hungry, having really
little or nothing to eat.

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