278 SAVAGE WEAPONS AT THE CENTENNIAL EXHIBITION. 



V. — SniELDS. 



Shields were in force, in Philadelphia, from Africa, Asia, Malaysia, 

 and Australia. They were of grass, ratan, hide, wood, and other mate- 

 rials. Some \\»ie so large as to cover the person; others were smaller 

 and intended to be moved to intercept a weapon; others still were long 

 and narrow, used in parrying spear- thrusts. 

 Beginning with the South of Africa, the first we find is the Zulu shield 



in the department of the Cape of Good 

 Hope. It is of ox-hide and of a long ellip- 

 tical shape. The color denotes service. 

 Black shields are for boys; white, with 

 mottlings, for warriors. The prevalence 

 of color or peculiar markings denotes the 

 regiment to which the warrior belongs. 

 The shield is strengthened by a vertical 

 stake at the rear, which forms a handle, 

 and projects below and above, where it 

 forms a rest and an ornament, respect- 

 ively. A strip of black hide is passed in 

 and out of a double row of slits, one row 

 on each side of the stick, showing on the 

 front of the shield like oblong markings 

 on a white ground. Standing on its end 

 the shield comes up to the warrior's eyes, 

 the stick to the crown of his head. The 

 shields are the property of the chief, and 

 are apportioned to the deserving. The 

 shapes of the shields vary among the dif- 

 ferent tribes of what may be called the 

 121 - Kafir race. Some of the shields have de- 



pressions in the sides as if a piece had been cut out, resembling the 

 emeile or sacred shield of Numa, which was supposed to have fallen 

 from Heaven. In some instances the depressions in the sides are so 

 greal as to make them hour-glass shaped. The Basuto Kafirs 187 have a 

 curious shield, resembling a body with two wings. The Bechuana have 

 a shield smaller than the Zulus and cut from the thickest part of an ox- 

 hide. The Barolongs and Batlapis have a rectangular shield, edged at 

 top and bottom with two rounded wings. 



Passing northward and reaching the latitude of Portuguese occupa- 

 tion, we find the mat shield of Angola, Pig 122, made of a species of 

 grass -rowing commonly in many parts of Africa. The same style of 

 manufacture is shown almost all along the Western Coast— the baskets 

 and mats of the Gold Coast, for instance. The grass is made into long 



lw Casalis' "Basutos," pp. <;3, 135, 130; Livingstone's "Zambesi," PI. ppp. p. 40. 



