DESCRIPTION OF THE ARBORE. 263 
cloaks, which they threw over their shoulders. When 
fighting they go nearly naked, as I have stated. 
They make excellent bags, baskets, and rope out of the 
bark of saplings, and a plant resembling the aloe, extract- 
ing the fibres by chewing. Many of their ornaments are 
very well made: brass bracelets wrought in many designs 
and highly decorated, ivory tobacco pouches with leather 
tops suspended around their necks, bells, finger-rings, 
and wooden combs for their hair. They also manufacture 
earthenware pots and pans; wooden vessels; bludgeons 
pointed at one end with a heavy knob on the other, and 
decorated with rings of iron; staffs, etched by means of a 
hot iron; iron chains; and various useful articles in leather. 
Their weapons consist of bows and arrows, javelins, and a 
few long thrusting-spears. Only a few of them use poison 
on their arrows. The iron points of the arrows are either 
barbed or spear-shaped, with a shaft devoid of any feath- 
ers. [he people themselves are of a dark-brown color 
(some of them almost black), and only average about five 
feet five inches. They have rather poor physiques, and 
their features are irregular and very ugly, but they do not 
have the large lips of the negro. 
The women wear an apron of skin reaching from the 
shoulder to the knees, and cover themselves with chains of 
cowry shells, beads, porcupine quills, or anything they can 
pick up. Many of them wear a long brass disk suspended 
over their foreheads. 
My suspicions regarding the natives were well founded; 
but, fortunately for us, they did not attack before letting 
us know exactly when and how they were coming. Soon 
after dark we could hear war-whoops and the sounds of 
the war-horns proceeding from the three big villages. 
Undoubtedly the natives were going to attack us, but we 
were not hurried in our preparations for defence. The 
