192 THE LOOKING-GLASS. Chap. IX. 



Batoka, because captured from that tribe, is of diminutive size, 

 but very beautiful ; and closely resembles the short-horns of our 

 own country. The little pair presented by the King of Portugal 

 to H.R.H. the Prince Consort, is of this breed. They are very 

 tame, and remarkably playful ; they may be seen lying on their 

 sides by the fires in the evening ; and, when the herd goes out, 

 the herdsman often precedes them, and has only to commence 

 capering to set them all a-gambolling. The meat is superior to 

 that of the large animal. The other, or Barotse ox, is much 

 larger, and comes from the fertile Barotse Valley. They stand 

 high on their legs, often nearly six feet at the withers ; and they 

 have large horns. Those of one of a similar breed that we brought 

 from the lake measured from tip to tip eight and a half feet. 



The Makololo are in the habit of shaving off a little from one 

 side of the horns of these animals when still growing, in order to 

 make them curve in that direction and assume fantastic shapes. 

 The stranger the curvature, the more handsome the ox is con- 

 sidered to be, and the longer this ornament of the cattle-pen is 

 spared to beautify the herd. This is a very ancient custom in 

 Africa, for the tributary tribes of Ethiopia are seen, on some of 

 the most ancient Egyptian monuments, bringing contorted-horned 

 cattle into Egypt. 



All are remarkably fond of their cattle, and spend much time 

 in ornamenting and adorning them. Some are branded all over 

 with a hot knife, so as to cause a permanent discolouration of the 

 hair, in lines like the bands on the hide of a zebra. Pieces of 

 skin two or three inches long and broad are detached, and allowed 

 to heal in a dependent position around the head — a strange style 

 of ornament; indeed, it is difficult to conceive in what their 

 notion of beauty consists. The women have somewhat the same 

 ideas with ourselves of what constitutes comeliness. They came 

 frequently and asked for the looking-glass ; and the remarks 

 they made — while I was engaged in reading, and apparently 

 not attending to them — on first seeing themselves therein, were 

 amusingly ridiculous. " Is that me ? " " What a big mouth I 

 have ! " " My ears are as big as pumpkin-leaves." " I have no 

 chin at all." Or, " I would have been pretty, but am spoiled by 

 these high cheek-bones." " See how my head shoots up in the 

 middle ! " laughing vociferously all the time at their own jokes. 

 They readily perceive any defect in each other, and give nick- 



