Chapter 6

(C. D. G.; S. A. C.)

1C. Taylor,Sayings of the Jewish Fathers(1897), pp. 106 sqq., 175 seq.; W. Bacher,Jew. Quart. Rev.xx. 572 sqq. (1908).2On theZōhar, “the Bible of the Kabbalists,” see below.3The view of a mediate creation, in the place of immediate creation out of nothing, and that the mediate beings were emanations, was much influenced by Solomon ibn Gabirol (1021-1070).4See F. Weber,Jüdische Theologie(1897), pp. 118 sqq.5See C. A. Briggs,Study of Holy Scripture(1899), pp. 427 sqq., 570.6Even the “over-Soul” of the mystic Isaac Luria (1534-1572) is a conception known in the 3rd centuryA.D.(Rabbi Rēsh Lakīsh). For the early stages of Kabbalistic theories, see K. Kohler,Jew. Ency.iii. 457 seq., and L. Ginzberg, ibid. 459 seq.; and for examples of the relationship between old Oriental (especially Babylonian) and Jewish Kabbalistic teaching (early and late), see especially A. Jeremias,Babylonisches in N. Test.(Leipzig, 1905); E. Bischoff,Bab. Astrales im Weltbilde des Thalmud u. Midrasch(1907).7L. Ginzberg,Jew. Ency.iii. 465.8See, especially, on the mystics of Safed in Upper Galilee, S. Schechter,Studies(1908), pp. 202-285.9See the instructive article by S. Schechter,Studies in Judaism(London, 1896), pp. 1-55.10See the discriminating estimates by S. A. Hirsch,Jew. Quart. Rev.xx. 50-73; I. Abrahams,Jew. Lit.(1906), ch. xvii.:Judaism(1907), ch. vi.11See,e.g., G. Margoliouth, “The Doctrine of Ether in the Kabbalah,”Jew. Quart. Rev.xx. 828 sqq. On the influence of the Kabbalah on the Reformation, see Stöckl,Gesch. d. Philosophie des Mittelalters, ii. 232-251.

1C. Taylor,Sayings of the Jewish Fathers(1897), pp. 106 sqq., 175 seq.; W. Bacher,Jew. Quart. Rev.xx. 572 sqq. (1908).

2On theZōhar, “the Bible of the Kabbalists,” see below.

3The view of a mediate creation, in the place of immediate creation out of nothing, and that the mediate beings were emanations, was much influenced by Solomon ibn Gabirol (1021-1070).

4See F. Weber,Jüdische Theologie(1897), pp. 118 sqq.

5See C. A. Briggs,Study of Holy Scripture(1899), pp. 427 sqq., 570.

6Even the “over-Soul” of the mystic Isaac Luria (1534-1572) is a conception known in the 3rd centuryA.D.(Rabbi Rēsh Lakīsh). For the early stages of Kabbalistic theories, see K. Kohler,Jew. Ency.iii. 457 seq., and L. Ginzberg, ibid. 459 seq.; and for examples of the relationship between old Oriental (especially Babylonian) and Jewish Kabbalistic teaching (early and late), see especially A. Jeremias,Babylonisches in N. Test.(Leipzig, 1905); E. Bischoff,Bab. Astrales im Weltbilde des Thalmud u. Midrasch(1907).

7L. Ginzberg,Jew. Ency.iii. 465.

8See, especially, on the mystics of Safed in Upper Galilee, S. Schechter,Studies(1908), pp. 202-285.

9See the instructive article by S. Schechter,Studies in Judaism(London, 1896), pp. 1-55.

10See the discriminating estimates by S. A. Hirsch,Jew. Quart. Rev.xx. 50-73; I. Abrahams,Jew. Lit.(1906), ch. xvii.:Judaism(1907), ch. vi.

11See,e.g., G. Margoliouth, “The Doctrine of Ether in the Kabbalah,”Jew. Quart. Rev.xx. 828 sqq. On the influence of the Kabbalah on the Reformation, see Stöckl,Gesch. d. Philosophie des Mittelalters, ii. 232-251.

KABINDA,a Portuguese possession on the west coast of Africa north of the mouth of the Congo. Westwards it borders the Atlantic, N. and N.E. French Congo, S. and S.E. Belgian Congo. It has a coast-line of 93 m., extends inland, at its greatest breadth, 70 m., and has an area of about 3000 sq. m. In its physical features, flora, fauna and inhabitants, it resembles the coast region of French Congo (q.v.). The only considerable river is the Chiloango, which in part forms the boundary between Portuguese and Belgian territory, and in its lower course divides Kabinda into two fairly even portions. The mouth of the river is in 5° 12′ S., 12° 5′ E. The chief town, named Kabinda, is a seaport on the right bank of the small river Bele, in 5° 33′ S., 12° 10′ E.; pop. about 10,000. From the beauty of its situation, and the fertility of the adjacent country, it has been called the paradise of the coast. The harbour is sheltered and commodious, with anchorage in four fathoms. Kabinda was formerly a noted slave mart. Farther north are the ports of Landana and Massabi. Between Kabinda and Landana is Molembo at the head of a small bay of the same name. There is a considerable trade in palm oil, ground nuts and other jungle produce, largely in the hands of British and German firms.

The possession of the enclave of Kabinda by Portugal is a result of the efforts made by that nation during the last quarter of the 19th century to obtain sovereignty over both banks of the lower Congo. Whilst Portugal succeeded in obtaining the southern bank of the river to the limit of navigability from the sea, the northern bank became part of the Congo Free State (seeAfrica, § 5). Portuguese claims to the north of the river were, however, to some extent met by the recognition of her right to Kabinda. The southernmost part of Kabinda is 25 m. (following the coast-line) north of the mouth of the Congo. This district as far north as the Chiloango river (and including the adjacent territory of Belgian Congo) is sometimes spoken of as Kacongo. The name Loango (q.v.) was also applied to this region as well as to the coast-lands immediately to the north. Administratively Kabinda forms a division of the Congo district of the province of Angola (q.v.). The inhabitants are Bantu negroes who are called Kabindas. They are an intelligent, energetic and enterprising people, daring sailors and active traders.

KABĪR,the most notable of the Vaishnava reformers of religion in northern India, who flourished during the first half of the 15th century. He is counted as one of the twelve disciples of Rāmānand, the great preacher in the north (aboutA.D.1400) of the doctrine ofbhaktiaddressed to Rāma, which originated with Rāmānuja (12th century) in southern India. He himself also mentions among his spiritual forerunners Jaidēo and Nāmdēo (or Nāmā) the earliest Marāthī poet (both about 1250). Legend relates that Kabīr was the son of a Brāhman widow, by whom he was exposed, and was found on a lotus in Lahar Talāo, a pond near Benares, by a Musalmān weaver named ‘Alī (orNūrī), who with his wife Nīmā adopted him and brought him up in their craft as a Musalmān. He lived most of his life at Benares, and afterwards removed to Maghar (or Magahar), in the present district of Bastī, where he is said to have died in 1449. There appears to be no reason to doubt that he was originally a Musalmān and a weaver; his own name and that of his son Kamāl are Mahommedan, not Hindu. His adhesion to the doctrine of Rāmānand is not a solitary instance of the religious syncretism which prevailed at this time in northern India. The religion of the earlier SikhGurus, which was largely based upon his teaching, also aimed at the fusion of Hinduism and Islam; and the example of Malik Muhammad,1the author of the Padmāwat, who lived a century later than Kabīr, shows that the relations between the two creeds were in some cases extremely intimate. It is related that at Kabīr’s death the Hindūs and Musalmāns each claimed him as an adherent of their faith, and that when his funeral issued forth from his house at Maghar the contention was only assuaged by the appearance of Kabīr himself, who bade them look under the cloth which covered the corpse, and immediately vanished. On raising the cloth they found nothing but a heap of flowers. This was divided between the rival faiths, half being buried by the Musalmāns and the other half burned by the Hindus.2

Kabīr’s fame as a preacher ofbhakti, or enthusiastic devotion to a personal God, whom he preferred to call by the Hindu names of Rāma and Hari, is greater than that of any other of the Vaishnava spiritual leaders. His fervent conviction of the truth and power of his doctrine, and the homely and searching expression given to it in his utterances, in the tongue of the people and not in a learned language remote from their understanding, won for him multitudes of adherents; and his sect, theKabīrpanthīs, is still one of the most numerous in northern India, its numbers exceeding a million. Its headquarters are theKabīr Chaurāat Benares, where are preserved the works attributed to Kabīr (called theGranth), the greater part of which, however, were written by his immediate disciples and their followers in his name.

Those works which seem to have the best claim to be considered his own compositions are theSākhīs, or stanzas, some 5000 in number, which have a very wide currency even among those who do not formally belong to the sect, and theShabdāwalī, consisting of a thousand “words” (shabd), or short doctrinal expositions. Perhaps some of theRēkhtas, or odes (100 in number), and of theRamainīs—brief mystical poems in very obscure language—may also be from his hand. Of these different forms specimens will be found translated in Professor H. H. Wilson’sSketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus, i. 79-90. Besides the followers who call themselves by Kabīr’s name, there may be reckoned to him many other religious sects which bear that of some intermediateguruor master, but substantially concur with Kabīr in doctrine and practice. Such, for instance, are theNānakshāhīsin the United Provinces, the Central Provinces, and Bombay, and theDādū-panthīs, numerous in Rajpūtānā (Wilson,loc. cit.pp. 103 sqq.); the Sikhs, numbering two and a half millions in the Panjāb, are also his spiritual descendants, and theirGranthor Scripture is largely stocked with texts drawn from his works.

Kabīr taught the life ofbhakti(faith, or personal love and devotion), the object of which is apersonalGod, and not a philosophical abstraction or an impersonal quality-less, all-pervading spiritual substance (as in the Vēdānta of Śankarāchārya). His utterances do not, like those of Tulsī Dās, dwell upon the incidents of the human life of Rāma, whom he takes as his type of the Supreme; nevertheless, it is the essence of his creed that God became incarnate to bring salvation to His children, mankind, and that the human mind of this incarnation still subsists in the Divine Person. He proclaims the unity of the Godhead, the vanity of idols, the powerlessness ofbrāhmansormullāsto guide or help, and the divine origin of the human soul,divinae particula aurae. All evil in the world is ascribed toMāyā, illusion or falsehood, and truth in thought, word and deed is enjoined as the chief duty of man: “No act of devotion can equal truth; no crime is so heinous as falsehood; in the heart where truth abides there is My abode.”3The distinctions of creeds are declared to be of no importance in the presence of God: “The city ofHara4is to the east, that of ‘Alī5is to the west; but explore your own heart, for there are bothRāmaandKarīm;”6“Behold but One in all things: it is the second that leads you astray. Every man and woman that has ever been born is of the same nature as yourself.He, whose is the world, and whose are the children of ‘AlīandRāma, He is myGuru, He is myPīr.” He proclaims the universal brotherhood of man, and the duty of kindness to all living creatures. Life is the gift of God, and must not be violated; the shedding of blood, whether of man or animals, is a heinous crime. The followers of Kabīr do not observe celibacy, and live quiet unostentatious lives; Wilson (p. 97) compares them to Quakers for their hatred of violence and unobtrusive piety.

The resemblance of many of Kabīr’s utterances to those of Christ, and especially to the ideas set forth in St John’s gospel, is very striking; still more so is the existence in the ritual of the sect of a sacramental meal, involving the eating of a consecrated wafer and the drinking of water administered by theMahantor spiritual superior, which bears a remarkable likeness to the Eucharist. Yet, though the deities of Hinduism and the prophet of Islam are frequently mentioned in his sayings, the name of Jesus has nowhere been found in them. It is conjectured that the doctrine of Rāmānand, which came from southern India, has been influenced by the Christian settlements in that region, which go back to very early times. It is also possible that Sūfīism, the pietistic (as distinguished from the theosophic) form of which seems to owe much to eastern Christianity, has contributed some echo of the Gospel to Kabīr’s teaching. A third (but scarcely probable) hypothesis is that the sect has borrowed both maxims and ritual, long after Kabīr’s own time, from the teaching of the Roman Catholic missionaries, who were established at Agra from the reign of Akbar (1556-1605) onwards.

No critical edition of the writings current under the name of Kabīr has yet been published, though collections of his sayings (chiefly theSākhīs) are constantly appearing from Indian presses. The reader is referred, for a summary account of his life and doctrine, to H. H. Wilson’sSketch of the Religious Sects of the Hindus(Works, i. 68 sqq.). Dr E. Trumpp’s edition of theĀdi Granth(Introduction, pp. xcvii. sqq.) may also be consulted. Recent publications dealing with the subject are the Rev. G. H. Westcott’sKabīr and the Kabīr Panth(Cawnpore, 1908), and Mr. M. A. Macauliffe’sThe Sikh Religion(Oxford, 1909), vi. 122-316.

(C. J. L.)

1See articleHindostani Literature.2An exactly similar tale is told of Nānak, the firstGuruof the Sikhs, who died in 1538.3This and the following passages in quotation marks are from Professor Wilson’s translation of 100Sākhīs, pp. 83-90.4Benares; Hara, a name of Śiva.5I.e.Mecca.6“The Bountiful,” one of the Korānic names of God (Allah).

1See articleHindostani Literature.

2An exactly similar tale is told of Nānak, the firstGuruof the Sikhs, who died in 1538.

3This and the following passages in quotation marks are from Professor Wilson’s translation of 100Sākhīs, pp. 83-90.

4Benares; Hara, a name of Śiva.

5I.e.Mecca.

6“The Bountiful,” one of the Korānic names of God (Allah).

KABUL,the capital of Afghanistan, standing at an elevation of 6900 ft. above the sea in 34° 32′ N. and 69° 14′ E. Estimated pop. (1901), 140,000. Lying at the foot of the bare and rocky mountains forming the western boundary of the Kabul valley, just below the gorge made by the Kabul River, the city extends a mile and a half east to west and one mile north to south. Hemmed in by the mountains, there is no way of extending it, except in a northerly direction towards the Sherpur cantonment. As the key of northern India, Kabul has been a city of vast importance for countless ages. It commands all the passes which here debouch from the north through the Hindu Kush, and from the west through Kandahar; and through it passed successive invasions of India by Alexander the Great, Mahmud of Ghazni, Jenghiz Khan, Baber, Nadir Shah and Ahmad Shah. Indeed from the time of Baber to that of Nadir Shah (1526-1738) Kabul was part of the empire of Delhi. It is now some 160 m. from the British frontier post of Jamrud near Peshawar.

Kabul was formerly walled; the old wall had seven gates, of which two alone remain, the Lahori and the Sirdar. The city itself is a huddle of narrow and dirty streets, with the Bala Hissar or fort forming the south-east angle, and rising about 150 ft. above the plain. The Amir’s palace is situated outside the town about midway between it and the Sherpur cantonment which lies about a mile to the north-east. Formerly the greatestornament of the city was the arcaded and roofed bazaar calledChihâr Châtâ, ascribed to Ali Mardan Khan, a noble of the 17th century, who has left behind him many monuments of his munificent public spirit both in Kabul and in Hindustan. Its four arms had an aggregate length of about 600 ft., with a breadth of 30. The display of goods was remarkable, and in the evening it was illuminated. This edifice was destroyed by Sir G. Pollock on evacuating Kabul in 1842 as a record of the treachery of the city.

The tomb of the Sultan Baber stands on a slope about a mile to the west of the city in a charming spot. The grave is marked by two erect slabs of white marble. Near him lie several of his wives and children; the garden was formerly enclosed by a marble wall; a clear stream waters the flower-beds. From the hill that rises behind the tomb there is a noble prospect of his beloved city, and of the all-fruitful plain stretching to the north of it.

After the accession of Abdur Rahman in 1880 the city underwent great changes. The Bala Hissar was destroyed and has never since been entirely rebuilt, and a fortified cantonment at Sherpur (one side of which was represented by the historic Bemaru ridge) had taken the place of the old earthworks of the British occupation of 1842 which were constructed on nearly the same site. The city streets were as narrow and evil-smelling, the surrounding gardens as picturesque and attractive, and the wealth of fruit was as great, as they had been fifty years previously. The amir, however, effected many improvements. Kabul is now connected by well-planned and metalled roads with Afghan Turkestan on the west, with the Oxus and Bokhara on the north, and with India on the east. The road to India was first made by British and is now maintained by Afghan engineers. The road southwards to Ghazni and Kandahar was always naturally excellent and has probably needed little engineering, but the general principle of road-making in support of a military advance has always been consistently maintained, and the expeditions of Kabul troops to Kafiristan have been supported by a very well graded and substantially constructed road up the Kunar valley from Jalalabad to Asmar, and onwards to the Bashgol valley of Kafiristan. The city ways have been improved until it has become possible for wheeled vehicles to pass, and the various roads connecting the suburbs and the city are efficiently maintained. A purely local railway has also been introduced, to assist in transporting building material. The buildings erected by Abdur Rahman were pretentious, but unmarked by any originality in design and hardly worthy representation of the beauty and dignity of Mahommedan architecture. They included a new palace and a durbar hall, a bridge across the river and embankment, a pavilion and garden laid out around the site of Baber’s tomb overlooking the Chardeh valley; and many other buildings of public utility connected with stud arrangements, the manufacture of small arms and ammunition, and the requirements of what may be termed a wholesale shop under European direction, besides hospitals, dispensaries, bazaars, &c. The new palace is within an entrenchment just outside the city. It is enclosed in a fine garden, well planted with trees, where the harem serai (or ladies’ apartments) occupies a considerable space. The public portion of the buildings comprise an ornamental and lofty pavilion with entrances on each side, and a high-domed octagonal room in the centre, beautifully fitted and appointed, where public receptions take place. The durbar hall, which is a separate building, is 60 yards long by 20 broad, with a painted roof supported by two rows of pillars. But the arrangement of terraced gardens and the lightly constructed pavilion which graces the western slopes of the hills overlooking Chardeh are the most attractive of these innovations. Here, on a summer’s day, with the scent of roses pervading the heated air, the cool refreshment of the passing breezes and of splashing fountains may be enjoyed by the officials of the Kabul court, whilst they look across the beauty of the thickly planted plains of Chardeh to the rugged outlines of Paghman and the snows of the Hindu Kush. The artistic taste of the landscape gardening is excellent, and the mountain scenery is not unworthy of Kashmir. It is pleasant to record that the graveyard of those officers who fell in the Kabul campaign of 1879-1880, which lies at the northern end of the Bemaru ridge, is not uncared for.

Kabul is believed to be theOrtospanumorOrtospanaof the geographies of Alexander’s march, a name conjectured to be a corruption ofUrddhasthâna, “high place.” This is the meaning of the name Bala Hissar. But the actual name is perhaps also found as that of a people in this position (Ptolemy’sKabolitae), if not in the name of a city apparently identical with Ortospana,Carura, in some copies readCabura. It was invaded by the Arabs as early as the thirty-fifth year of the Hegira, but it was long before the Mahommedans effected any lasting settlement. In the early Mahommedan histories and geographies we find (according to a favourite Arabic love of jingle)KâbulandZâbulconstantly associated. Zâbul appears to have been the country about Ghazni. Kabul first became a capital when Baber made himself master of it in 1504, and here he reigned for fifteen years before his invasion of Hindustan. In modern times it became a capital again, under Timur Shah (seeAfghanistan), and so has continued both to the end of the Durani dynasty, and under the Barakzais, who now reign. It was occupied by Sir John Keane in 1839, General Pollock in 1842, and again by Sir Frederick, afterwards Lord Roberts, in 1879.Kabul is also the name of the province including the city so called. It may be considered to embrace the whole of the plains called Koh Daman and Beghram, &c., to the Hindu Kush northward, with the Kohistan or hill country adjoining. Eastward it extends to the border of Jalalabad at Jagdalak; southward it includes the Logar district, and extends to the border of Ghazni; north-westward it includes the Paghman hills, and the valley of the upper Kabul river, and so to the Koh-i-Baba. Roughly it embraces a territory of about 100 m. square, chiefly mountainous. Wheat and barley are the staple products of the arable tracts. Artificial grasses are also much cultivated, and fruits largely, especially in the Koh Daman. A considerable part of the population spends the summer in tents. The villages are not enclosed by fortifications, but contain small private castles or fortalices.See C. Yate,Northern Afghanistan(1888); J. A. Gray,At the Court of the Amir(1895); Sir T. H. H. Holdich,The Indian Borderland(1901).

Kabul is also the name of the province including the city so called. It may be considered to embrace the whole of the plains called Koh Daman and Beghram, &c., to the Hindu Kush northward, with the Kohistan or hill country adjoining. Eastward it extends to the border of Jalalabad at Jagdalak; southward it includes the Logar district, and extends to the border of Ghazni; north-westward it includes the Paghman hills, and the valley of the upper Kabul river, and so to the Koh-i-Baba. Roughly it embraces a territory of about 100 m. square, chiefly mountainous. Wheat and barley are the staple products of the arable tracts. Artificial grasses are also much cultivated, and fruits largely, especially in the Koh Daman. A considerable part of the population spends the summer in tents. The villages are not enclosed by fortifications, but contain small private castles or fortalices.

See C. Yate,Northern Afghanistan(1888); J. A. Gray,At the Court of the Amir(1895); Sir T. H. H. Holdich,The Indian Borderland(1901).

(T. H. H.*)

KABUL RIVER,a river of Afghanistan, 300 m. in length. The Kabul (ancientKophes), which is the most important (although not the largest) river in Afghanistan, rises at the foot of the Unai pass leading over the Sanglakh range, an offshoot of the Hindu Kush towards Bamian and Afghan Turkestan. Its basin forms the province of Kabul, which includes all northern Afghanistan between the Hindu Kush and the Safed Koh ranges. From its source to the city of Kabul the course of the river is only 45 m., and this part of it is often exhausted in summer for purposes of irrigation. Half a mile east of Kabul it is joined by the Logar, a much larger river, which rises beyond Ghazni among the slopes of the Gul Koh (14,200 ft.), and drains the rich and picturesque valleys of Logar and Wardak. Below the confluence the Kabul becomes a rapid stream with a great volume of water and gradually absorbs the whole drainage of the Hindu Kush. About 40 m. below Kabul the Panjshir river joins it; 15 m. farther the Tagao; 20 m. from the Tagao junction the united streams of Alingar and Alishang (rivers of Kafiristan); and 20 m. below that, at Balabagh, the Surkhab from the Safed Koh. Two or three miles below Jalalabad it is joined by the Kunar, the river of Chitral. Thenceforward it passes by deep gorges through the Mohmand hills, curving northward until it emerges into the Peshawar plain at Michni. Soon afterwards it receives the Swat river from the north and the Bara river from the south, and after a further course of 40 m. falls into the Indus at Attock. From Jalalabad downwards the river is navigable by boats or rafts of inflated skins, and is considerably used for purposes of commerce.

KABYLES,orKabail, a confederation of tribes in Algeria, Tunisia, and a few oases of the Sahara, who form a branch of the great Berber race. Their name is the Arabicgabīlat(pl.:gabāil), and was at first indiscriminately applied by the Arabs to all Berber peoples. The part of Algeria which they inhabit is usually regarded as consisting of two divisions—Great Kabylia and Lesser Kabylia, the former being also known as the Kabylia of the Jurjura (also called Adrar Budfel, “Mountain of Snow”). Physically many Kabyles do not present much contrast to the Arabs of Algeria. Both Kabyle and Arab are white at birth, but rapidly grow brown through exposure to air and sunshine. Both have in general brown eyes and wavy hairof coarse quality, varying from dark brown to jet black. In stature there is perhaps a little difference in favour of the Kabyle, and he appears also to be of heavier build and more muscular. Both are clearly long-headed. Some, however, of the purer type of Kabyles in Kabylia proper have fair skins, ruddy complexions and blue or grey eyes. In fact there are two distinct types of Kabyles: those which by much admixture have approximated to Arab and negroid types, and those which preserve Libyan features. Active, energetic and enterprising, the Kabyle is to be found far from home—as a soldier in the French army, as a workman in the towns, as a field labourer, or as a pedlar or trader earning the means of purchasing his bit of ground in his native village. The Kabyles are Mahommedans of the Sunnite branch and the Malikite rite, looking to Morocco as the nearer centre of their religion. Some of the Kabyles retain their vernacular speech, while others have more or less completely adopted Arabic. The best known of the Kabyle dialects is the Zouave1or Igaouaouen, those speaking it having been settled on the northern side of the Jurjura at least from the time of Ibn Khaldun; it is the principal basis of Hanoteau’sEssai de grammaire kabyle(Paris, 1858). Unlike their southern brethren, the Kabyles have no alphabet, and their literature is still in the stage of oral transmission, for the most part by professional reciters. Hanoteau’sPoésies populaires de la Kabylie du Jurjura(Paris, 1867) gives the text and translation of a considerable number of historical pieces, proverbial couplets and quatrains, dancing songs, &c.

Consult General L. L. C. Faidherbe and Dr Paul Topinard,Instructions sur l’anthropologie de l’Algérie(Paris, 1874); Melchior Joseph Eugène Daumas,Le Sahara algérien(Paris, 1845) andMœurs et coutumes de l’Algérie(1857); De Slane’s translation of Ibn Khaldun’sHist. des Berbères(Algiers, 1852); Aucapitaine,Les Kabyles et la colonie de l’Algérie(Paris, 1864) andLes Beni M’zab(1868); L.J.A.C. Hanoteau and A. Letourneux,La Kabylie et les coutumes kabyles(Paris, 1893); Charmetant, inJahrbücher der Verbreitung des Glaubens(1874); Masqueray,Formation des cités ... de l’Algérie(1886); Dugas,La Kabylie et le peuple kabyle(Paris, 1878); Récoux,La Démographie de l’Algérie(Paris, 1880); J. Liorel,Races berbères: les Kabyles(Paris, 1893); MacIver and Wilkin,Libyan Notes(1901).

1From the enlistment of Kabyles speaking the Zouave dialect the Zouave regiments of the French army came to be so called.

KACH GANDAVA,orKachhi(Kach, Kej, Kiz), a low-lying flat region in Baluchistan separating the Bugti hills from those of Kalat. It is driven, like a wedge, into the frontier mountain system and extends for 150 m. from Jacobabad to Sibi, with nearly as great a breadth at its base on the Sind frontier. Area, 5310 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 82,909. The Mula pass, which connects it with the Kalat highlands, was once (when the ancient city of Kandabel was the capital of Gandava) a much trodden trade highway, and is still a practicable route though no longer a popular one. The soil is fertile wherever it can be irrigated by the floods brought down from the surrounding hills; but much of the central portion is sandy waste. It is traversed by the North-Western railway. The climate is unhealthy in summer, when pestilential hot winds are sometimes destructive to life. The annual rainfall averages only 3 in. Kachhi, though subject to the khan of Kalat, is administered under the tribal system. There are no schools, dispensaries or gaols.

SeeBaluchistan District Gazetteer, vol. vi. (Bombay, 1907).

KACHIN HILLS,a mountainous tract in Upper Burma, inhabited by the Kachin or Chingpaw, who are known on the Assam frontier as Singphos. Owing to the great number of tribes, sub-tribes and clans of the Kachins, the part of the Kachin hills which has been taken under administration in the Myitkyina and Bhamo districts was divided into 40 Kachin hill tracts (recently reduced to five). Beyond these tracts there are many Kachins in Katha, Möng Mit and the northern Shan States. The country within the Kachin hill tracts is roughly estimated at 19,177 sq. m., and consists of a series of ranges, for the most part running north and south, and intersected by valleys, all leading towards the Irrawaddy, which drains the country. There were 64,405 Kachins enumerated at the census of 1901. Philological investigations show that it is probable that the progenitors of the Kachins or Chingpaw were the Indo-Chinese race who, before the beginnings of history, but after the Môn-Annam wave had covered Indo-China, forsook their home in western China to pour over the region where Tibet, Assam, Burma and China converge, and that the Chingpaw are the residue left round the headquarters of the Irrawaddy and the Chindwin after those branches, destined to become the Tibetans, the Nagas, the Burmans and the Kuki Chins, had gone westwards and southwards. In the middle of the 19th century the southern limit of the Kachins was 200 m. farther north than it is now. Since then the race has been drifting steadily southward and eastward, a vast aggregate of small independent clans united by no common government, but all obeying a common impulse to move outwards from their original seats along the line of least resistance. Now the Kachins are on both sides of the border of Upper Burma, and are a force to be reckoned with by frontier administrators. According to the Kachin Hill Tribes Regulation of 1895, administrative responsibility is accepted by the British government on the left bank of the Irrawaddy for the country south of the Nmaikha, and on the right bank for the country south of a line drawn from the confluence of the Malikha and Nmaikha through the northern limit of the Laban district and including the jade mines. The tribes north of this line were told that if they abstained from raiding to the south of it they would not be interfered with. South of that line peace was to be enforced and a small tribute exacted, with a minimum of interference in their private affairs. On the British side of the border the chief objects have been the disarmament of the tribes and the construction of frontier and internal roads. A light tribute is exacted.

The Kachins have been the object of many police operations and two regular expeditions: (1) Expedition of 1892-93. Bhamo was occupied by the British on the 28th of December 1885, and almost immediately trouble began. Constant punitive measures were carried on by the military police; but in December 1892 a police column proceeding to establish a post at Sima was heavily attacked, and simultaneously the town of Myitkyina was raided by Kachins. A force of 1200 troops was sent to put down the rising. The enemy received their final blow at Palap, but not before three officers were killed, three wounded, and 102 sepoys and followers killed and wounded. (2) Expedition of 1895-96. The continued misconduct of the Sana Kachins from beyond the administrative border rendered punitive measures necessary. They had remained unpunished since the attack on Myitkyina in December 1892. Two columns were sent up, one of 250 rifles from Myitkyina, the other of 200 rifles from Mogaung, marching in December 1895. The resistance was insignificant, and the operations were completely successful. A strong force of military police is stationed at Myitkyina, with several outposts in the Kachin hills, and the country is never wholly free from crimes of violence committed by the Kachins.

KADUR,a district of Mysore state, in southern India, with an area of 2813 sq. m. Pop. (1901), 362,752, showing an increase of 9% in the decade. The larger portion of the district consists of the Malnad or hill country, which contains some of the wildest mountain scenery in southern India. The western frontier is formed by the chain of the Ghats, of which the highest peaks are the Kudremukh (6215 ft.) and the Meniti Gudda (5451 ft.). The centre is occupied by the horse-shoe range of the Baba Budans, containing the loftiest mountain in Mysore, Mulaingiri (6317 ft.). The Maidan or plain country lying beneath the amphitheatre formed by the Baba Budan hills is a most fertile region, well watered, and with the famous “black cotton soil.” The principal rivers are the Tunga and Bhadra, which rise near each other in the Ghats, and unite to form the Tungabhadra, a tributary of the Kistna. The eastern region is watered by the Vedavati. At the point where this river leaves the Baba Budan hills it is embanked to form two extensive tanks which irrigate the lower valley. From all the rivers water is drawn off into irrigation channels by means of anicuts or weirs. The chief natural wealth of Kadur is in its forests, which contain inexhaustible supplies of the finest timber, especially teak, and also furnish shelter for the coffee plantations. Iron is found and smelted at the foot of the hills, and corundum exists in certain localities. Wild beasts and game are numerous, and fish are abundant.

The largest town is Tarikere (pop. 10,164); the headquarters are at Chikmagalur (9515): The staple crop is rice, chiefly grown on the hill slopes, where the natural rainfall is sufficient, or in the river valley, where the fields can be irrigated. Coffee cultivation is said to have been introduced by a Mahommedan saint, Baba Budan, more than two centuries ago; but it first attracted European capital in 1840. The district is served by the Southern Mahratta railway.

KAEMPFER, ENGELBRECHT(1651-1716), German traveller and physician, was born on the 16th of November 1651 at Lemgo in Lippe-Detmold, Westphalia, where his father was a pastor. He studied at Hameln, Lüneburg, Hamburg, Lübeck and Danzig, and after graduating Ph.D. at Cracow, spent four years at Königsberg in Prussia, studying medicine and natural science. In 1681 he visited Upsala in Sweden, where he was offered inducements to settle; but his desire for foreign travel led him to become secretary to the embassy which Charles XI. sent through Russia to Persia in 1683. He reached Persia by way of Moscow, Kazan and Astrakhan, landing at Nizabad in Daghestan after a voyage in the Caspian; from Shemakha in Shirvan he made an expedition to the Baku peninsula, being perhaps the first modern scientist to visit these fields of “eternal fire.” In 1684 he arrived in Isfahan, then the Persian capital. When after a stay of more than a year the Swedish embassy prepared to return, Kaempfer joined the fleet of the Dutch East India Company in the Persian Gulf as chief surgeon, and in spite of fever caught at Bander Abbasi he found opportunity to see something of Arabia and of many of the western coast-lands of India. In September 1689 he reached Batavia; spent the following winter in studying Javanese natural history; and in May 1690 set out for Japan as physician to the embassy sent yearly to that country by the Dutch. The ship in which he sailed touched at Siam, whose capital he visited; and in September 1690 he arrived at Nagasaki, the only Japanese port then open to foreigners. Kaempfer stayed two years in Japan, during which he twice visited Tōkyō. His adroitness, insinuating manners and medical skill overcame the habitual jealousy and reticence of the natives, and enabled him to elicit much valuable information. In November 1692 he left Japan for Java and Europe, and in October 1693 he landed at Amsterdam. Receiving the degree of M.D. at Leiden, he settled down in his native city, becoming also physician to the count of Lippe. He died at Lemgo on the 2nd of November 1716.

The only work Kaempfer lived to publish wasAmoenitatum exoticarum politico-physico-medicarum fasciculiV. (Lemgo, 1712), a selection from his papers giving results of his invaluable observations in Georgia, Persia and Japan. At his death the unpublished manuscripts were purchased by Sir Hans Sloane, and conveyed to England. Among them was aHistory of Japan, translated from the manuscript into English by J. G. Scheuchzer and published at London, in 2 vols., in 1727. The original German has never been published, the extant German version being taken from the English. Besides Japanese history, this book contains a description of the political, social and physical state of the country in the 17th century. For upwards of a hundred years it remained the chief source of information for the general reader, and is still not wholly obsolete. A life of the author is prefixed to theHistory.

KAFFA,a country of N.E. Africa, part of the Abyssinian empire. Kaffa proper (formerly known also as Gomara) has an area of little more than 5000 sq. m., but the name is used in a general sense to include the neighbouring territories of Gimirra, Jimma, Ennarea, &c. In this larger acceptation Kaffa extends roughly from 6° to 9° N. and from 35° to 37½° E. It forms the S.W. part of the great Abyssinian plateau and consists of broken table-land deeply scored by mountain torrents and densely wooded. The general elevation is about 8000 ft., while several peaks are over 10,000 ft. From the western slopes of the plateau descend headstreams of the Sobat. The principal river however is the Omo, the chief feeder of Lake Rudolf. Kaffa proper is believed to be the native home of the coffee plant (whence the name), which grows in profusion on the mountain sides. The principal town was Bonga, 7½° N., 36° 12′ E., a great trading centre, but the Abyssinian headquarters are at Anderacha, about 12 m. S.S.W. of Bonga. Jiren, the capital of Jimma, 60 m. N.E. of Bonga, is a still more important town, its weekly market being attended by some 20,000 persons.

A great variety of races inhabit these countries of southern Ethiopia. The Kaficho (people of Kaffa proper) are said to be of the same stock as the northern Abyssinians and to have been separated from the rest of the country by the Mahommedan invasion of the 16th century. Thus Jimma, immediately north of Kaffa proper, is peopled by Mahommedan Gallas. The Kaficho, though much mixed with Galla blood, retained their Christianity and a knowledge of Geez, the ecclesiastical tongue of Abyssinia. The ordinary language of the Kaficho has no outward resemblance to modern Abyssinian. Their speech was, however, stated by Dr C. T. Beke (c.1850) to be cognate with the Gonga tongue, spoken in a portion of Damot, on the northern side of the Abai. Kaffa, after having been ruled by independent sovereigns, who were also suzerains of the neighbouring states, was about 1895 conquered by the Abyssinians. The first European explorer of Kaffa was Antoine de’Abbadie, who visited it in 1843. Not until the early years of the 20th century was the country accurately mapped.

KAFFIR BREAD,in botany, the popular name for a species ofEncephalartos(E. caffra), one of the cycads, a native of South Africa, so called from the farinaceous food-stuff which is found at the apex of the stem (Gr.ἐν, in,κεφαλή, head, andἄρτος, bread). It is a tree reaching nearly 20 ft. in height, with very stiff, spreading pinnate leaves 3 to 4 ft. long and recurving at the tip. The species ofEncephalartos, which are natives of tropical and South Africa, form handsome greenhouse and conservatory plants; some species are effectively used in subtropical gardening in the summer months.

KAFFIRS(ArabicKafir, an unbeliever), a name given by the Arabs to the native races of the east coast of Africa. The term was current along the east coast at the arrival of the Portuguese, and passed from them to the Dutch and English, and to the natives themselves under the form ofKafula. There are no general or collective national names for these peoples, and the various tribal divisions are mostly designated by historical or legendary chiefs, founders of dynasties or hereditary chieftaincies. The term has no real ethnological value, for the Kaffirs have no national unity. To-day it is used to describe that large family of Bantu negroes inhabiting the greater part of the Cape, the whole of Natal and Zululand, and the Portuguese dominions on the east coast south of the Zambezi. The name is also loosely applied to any negro inhabitant of South Africa. For example, the Bechuana of the Transvaal and Orange Free State are usually called Kaffirs.

The Kaffirs are divisible into two great branches: the Ama-Zulu with the Ama-Swazi and Ama-Tonga and the Kaffirs proper, represented by the Ama-Xosa, the Tembu (q.v.) and the Pondo (q.v.). Hence the compound term Zulu-Kaffir applied in a collective sense to all the Kaffir peoples. Intermediate between these two branches were several broken tribes now collectively known as Ama-Fengu,i.e.“wanderers” or “needy” people, fromfenguza, to seek service1(seeFingo).

The ramifications of the Kaffirs proper cannot be understood without reference to the national genealogies, most of the tribal names, as already stated, being those of real or reputed founders of dynasties. Thus the term Ama-Xosa means simply the “people of Xosa,” a somewhat mythical chief supposed to have flourished about the year 1530. Ninth in descent from his son Toguh was Palo, who died about 1780, leaving two sons, Gcaleka and Rarabe (pronounced Kha-Kha-bē), from whom came the Ama-Gcaleka, Ama-Dhlambe (T’slambies) and the Ama-Ngquika (Gaika or Sandili’s people). The Pondo do not descend from Xosa, but probably from an elder brother, while the Tembu, though apparently representing a younger branch, are regarded by all the Kaffir tribes as the royal race. Hence the Gcaleka chief, who is the head of allthe Ama-Xosa tribes, always takes his first or “great wife” from the Tembu royal family, and her issue alone have any claim to the succession. The subjoined genealogical tree will place Kaffir relations in a clearer light:—It will be seen that, as representing the elder branch, the Gcaleka stand apart from the rest of Xosa’s descendants, whom they group collectively as Ama-Rarabe (Ama-Khakhabe), and whose genealogies, except in the case of the Gaikas and T’slambies, are very confused. The Ama-Xosa country lies mainly between the Keiskama and Umtata rivers.The Zulu call themselves Abantu ba-Kwa-Zulu,i.e.“people of Zulu’s land,” or briefly Bakwa-Zulu, from a legendary chief Zulu, founder of the royal dynasty. They were originally an obscure tribe occupying the basin of the Umfolosi river, but rose suddenly to power under Chaka,2who had been brought up among the neighbouring and powerful Umtetwas, and who succeeded the chiefs of that tribe and of his own in the beginning of the 19th century. But the true mother tribe seems to have been the extinct Ama-Ntombela, whence the Ama-Tefulu, the U’ndwande, U’mlelas, U’mtetwas and many others, all absorbed or claiming to be true Zulus. But they are only so by political subjection, and the gradual adoption of the Zulu dress, usages and speech. Hence in most cases the term Zulu implies political rather than blood relationship. This remark applies also to the followers of Mosilikatze (properly Umsilikazi), who, after a fierce struggle with the Bechuana, founded about 1820 a second Zulu state about the head waters of the Orange river. In 1837 most of them were driven northwards by the Boers and are now known as Matabele.

It will be seen that, as representing the elder branch, the Gcaleka stand apart from the rest of Xosa’s descendants, whom they group collectively as Ama-Rarabe (Ama-Khakhabe), and whose genealogies, except in the case of the Gaikas and T’slambies, are very confused. The Ama-Xosa country lies mainly between the Keiskama and Umtata rivers.

The Zulu call themselves Abantu ba-Kwa-Zulu,i.e.“people of Zulu’s land,” or briefly Bakwa-Zulu, from a legendary chief Zulu, founder of the royal dynasty. They were originally an obscure tribe occupying the basin of the Umfolosi river, but rose suddenly to power under Chaka,2who had been brought up among the neighbouring and powerful Umtetwas, and who succeeded the chiefs of that tribe and of his own in the beginning of the 19th century. But the true mother tribe seems to have been the extinct Ama-Ntombela, whence the Ama-Tefulu, the U’ndwande, U’mlelas, U’mtetwas and many others, all absorbed or claiming to be true Zulus. But they are only so by political subjection, and the gradual adoption of the Zulu dress, usages and speech. Hence in most cases the term Zulu implies political rather than blood relationship. This remark applies also to the followers of Mosilikatze (properly Umsilikazi), who, after a fierce struggle with the Bechuana, founded about 1820 a second Zulu state about the head waters of the Orange river. In 1837 most of them were driven northwards by the Boers and are now known as Matabele.

The origin of the Zulu-Kaffir race has given rise to much controversy. It is obvious that they are not the aborigines of their present domain, whence in comparatively recent times—since the beginning of the 16th century—they have displaced the Hottentots and Bushmen of fundamentally distinct stock. They themselves are conscious of their foreign origin. Yet they are closely allied in speech (seeBantu Languages) and physique to the surrounding Basuto, Bechuana and other members of the great South African Negroid family. Hence their appearance in the south-east corner of the continent is sufficiently explained by the gradual onward movement of the populations pressing southward on the Hottentot and Bushman domain. The specific differences in speech and appearance by which they are distinguished from the other branches of the family must in the same way be explained by the altered conditions of their new habitat. Hence it is that the farther they have penetrated southwards the farther have they become differentiated from the pure Negro type. Thus the light and clear brown complexion prevalent amongst the southern Tembu becomes gradually darker as we proceed northwards, passing at last to the blue-black and sepia of the Ama-Swazi and Tekeza. Even many of the mixed Fingo tribes are of a polished ebony colour, like that of the Jolofs and other Senegambian negroes. The Kaffir hair is uniformly of a woolly texture. The head is dolichocephalic, but it is also high or long vertically,3and it is in this feature of hypsistenocephaly (height and length combined) that the Kaffir presents the most striking contrast with the pure Negro. But, the nose being generally rather broad4and the lips thick, the Kaffir face, though somewhat oval, is never regular in the European sense, the deviations being normally in the direction of the Negro, with which race the peculiar odour of the skin again connects the Kaffirs. In stature they rank next to the Patagonians, Polynesians and West Africans, averaging from 5 ft. 9 in. to 5 ft. 11 in., and even 6 ft.5They are slim, well-proportioned and muscular. Owing to the hard life they lead, the women are generally inferior in appearance to the men, except amongst the Zulu, and especially the Tembu. Hence in the matrimonial market, while the Ama-Xosa girl realizes no more than ten or twelve head of cattle, the Tembu belle fetches as many as forty, and if especially fine even eighty.

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