cient number of cattle are required, whose attendance and treatment is the
sole responsibility of the father of the family, in which he is assisted by his
sons. The Kaffir's cattle is the foremost and practically the only subject of his
care and occupation, in the possession of which he finds complete happiness.
He sees to their grazing, and in the evening to their return to the stable,
constructed of a jumble of thorny branches, and which adjoins his hut. He
also attends to the milking of the cows and generally to everything requiring
attention in cattle raising.t"
There was a vast vocabulary concerning cattle. The Mpondo had "at
least fifty-seven different terms describing cattle of different markings, as
well as five terms describing the horns.?"! A man had a name for every
beast he owned and composed praise songs for his favorites. Among the
Basotho, there is a saying: "Dikgomo ke banka ya Mosotho"
(Cattle are
the bank of a Mosothoj.f-
In many areas, cattle were moved from one type of pasturage to another
during the year. In the summer, the Xhosa grazed their cattle in what is now
known as sourveld-grasses
that are nutritious
in their early stages of
growth but then lose their protein and mineral content and become un-