OSTRICH FEATHERS 405 



waving, loose, and flexible barbs. At the Cape the price varies 

 from one or two guineas to twelve for the pound, the latter sum, 

 however, being only paid for very prime feathers. The thinner 

 the quill and the longer and more wavy the plume, the more it 

 is prized. From seventy to ninety feathers go to the pound ; 

 but a single bird seldom furnishes more than a dozen, as many 

 of them are spoilt by trailing or some other accident. The 

 vagrant tribes of the Sahara sell their ostrich plumes to the 

 caravans which annually cross the desert^ and convey them to the 

 ports of the Mediterranean. Here they were purchased as far 

 back as the twelfth or thirteenth century, by the Pisanese or 

 Grenoese merchants, through whose agency they ultimately 

 crossed the Alps to decorate the stately hurggrdfinnen of the 

 Ehine, or the wives of the opulent traders of Augsburg or 

 Nuremberg. At a still more remote period the Phoenicians 

 brought ostrich-feathe^ from Ophir to Tyre, whence they were 

 distributed among the princes of the Eastern world. 



The Damaras and the Bechuanas manufacture handsome 

 parasols from the black body feathers of the ostrich, which, 

 besides affording protection from the sun's rays, not unfre- 

 quently prove serviceable in the chase, and being stuck into 

 the ground^ at the proper moment, divert the attention of a 

 lion from the object of his vengeance, and thus enable the rest 

 of the party to rush in and despatch him with their assegais. 

 Contrary to our European notions, which assign ornament and 

 a tender care for the complexion more particularly to the fair 

 sex, we here find the men, " whose skin," says Harris, " some- 

 what coarser than the hide of a rhinoceros, might vie in point 

 of colour with a boot," exclusively guard their complexion with 

 these elegant umbrellas. 



The thick skin of the ostrich, decked with its coat of feathers, 

 is likewise a prized article in African trade, and, according to 

 Baron Aucapitaine, fetches from seventy-five to ninety francs in 

 Tripoli and Tunis. 



In the Tell, or the cultivated coast districts of Algeria, the 

 ostrich is often domesticated, particularly on account of its 

 eggs, which weigh three pounds, and are equivalent to twenty- 

 four of the common fowl's eggs. It might be supposed that one 

 of these giant eggs would be too much for the most vigorous 

 appetite, yet Anderson saw two natives despatch five of them 



