In Africa, as in districts of Germany and Holland, woman is burdened with agricultural duties.  The soil of Africa is very rich,[84] and consequently Nature furnishes her untutored children with much spontaneous vegetation.  It is a rather remarkable fact, that the average African warrior thinks it a degradation for him to engage in agriculture.  He will fell trees, and help move a village, but will not go into the field to work.  The women—­generally the married ones—­do the gardening.  They carry the seed on their heads in a large basket, a hoe on their shoulder, and a baby slung on the back.  They scatter the seed over the ground, and then break up the earth to the depth of three or four inches.

“Four or five gardens are often to be seen round a kraal, each situated so as to suit some particular plant.  Various kinds of crops are cultivated by the Kaffirs, the principal being maize, millet, pumpkins, and a kind of spurious sugar-cane in great use throughout Southern Africa, and popularly known by the name of ‘sweet-reed.’  The two former constitute, however, the necessaries of life, the latter belonging rather to the class of luxuries.  The maize, or, as it is popularly called when the pods are severed from the stem, ‘mealies,’ is the very staff of life to a Kaffir; as it is from the mealies that is made the thick porridge on which the Kaffir chiefly lives.  If a European hires a Kaffir, whether as guide, servant, or hunter, he is obliged to supply him with a stipulated quantity of food, of which the maize forms the chief ingredient.  Indeed, so long as the native of Southern Africa can get plenty of porridge and sour milk, he is perfectly satisfied with his lot.  When ripe, the ears of maize are removed from the stem, the leafy envelope is stripped off, and they are hung in pairs over sticks until they are dry enough to be taken to the storehouse."[85]

The cattle are cared for by the men, and women are not allowed to engage in the hunt for wild animals.  The cattle among the mountain and sandstone tribes are of a fine stock, but those of the tribes in the alluvia, like their owners, are small and sickly.

The African pays more attention to his weapons of offensive warfare than he does to his wives; but in many instances he is quite skilful in the handicrafts.

“The Ishogo people are noted throughout the neighboring tribes for the superior quality and fineness of the bongos, or pieces of grass-cloth, which they manufacture.  They are industrious and skilful weavers.  In walking down the main street of Mokenga, a number of ouandjas, or houses without walls are seen, each containing four or five looms, with the weavers seated before them weaving the cloth.  In the middle of the floor of the ouandjay a wood-fire is seen burning; and the weavers, as you pass by, are sure to be seen smoking their pipes, and chatting to one another whilst going on with their work.  The weavers are all men,