IN SOUTH AFRICA. 255 
which results from it, though whimsical in our eyes, is consi- 
dered by them as highly ornamental. In truth, I do not see that 
this practice is in any degree more barbarous or irrational than 
that of covering the hair with white powder, which not long 
ago was so fashionable in the most civilized parts of Europe. 
The Caffer women, of whom I did not see a great many, 
are not so well shaped or so good-looking as the men, but 
have very good-humoured countenances. The chief distinc- 
tive peculiarity in their dress is that they do not go bare- 
headed like the other sex, but wear a cap of dressed leather, 
shaped a little like a turban, and decorated with beads and 
brass buttons. "Their cloak, which is generally much orna- 
mented with these same articles, is arranged more decently 
than that of the men, being in general wrapt close round 
them, and covering them from the throat to the ancles; but 
the unmarried women sometimes fasten it round the waist 
in the manner of a'petticoat, leaving the upper part of the 
Person exposed. Beneath this garment they wear a diminu- 
tive apron of the same material, covered with beads. 
Among the Caffers who assembled at Block Drift, was a 
very strange-looking personage, a son of the chief Eno. His 
form and features were like those of the other Caffers, but 
the colour of his skin a disagreeable reddish-white, not like 
the ordinary complexion of Englishmen, but with a stronger 
and more uniform tint of red, so that he looked somewhat as 
if he had been scalded or half-flayed, and had certainly a 
most repulsive appearance. His hair was of a sandy-yellow 
colour, but as woolly as that of his countrymen. He was 
tall and robust, and was considered as a bold and able war- 
rior, though said to share in the weakness of sight which has 
often been remarked in Albinos. 
Another remarkable personage present at the conference 
Was Sutu or Sootoo, the chief widow of Gaika; her bulk was 
immense, and her figure most extraordinary, the projection 
behind rivalling that of the famous Hottentot Venus. This 
truly marvellous accumulation of fat in the rear is, as it ap- 
Pears, not quite confined to the Hottentot race, for Sutu is a 
