Chap. IX. MODE OF PREPARING SKINS. 193 



names accordingly. One man came alone to have a quiet gaze 

 at his own features once, when he thought I was asleep : after 

 twisting his mouth about in various directions, he remarked to 

 himself, " People say I am ugly, and how very ugly I am 

 indeed ! " 



The Makololo use all the skins of their oxen for making either 

 mantles or shields. For the former, the hide is stretched out by 

 means of pegs, and dried. Ten or a dozen men then collect 

 round it with small adzes, which, when sharpened with an iron 

 bodkin, are capable of shaving off the substance of the skin on 

 the fleshy side until it is quite thin ; when sufficiently thin, a 

 quantity of brain is smeared over it, and some thick milk. Then 

 an instrument made of a number of iron spikes tied round a piece 

 of wood, so that the points only project beyond it, is applied to 

 it in a carding fashion, until the fibres of the bulk of it are quite 

 loose. Milk or butter is applied to it again, and it forms a gar- 

 ment nearly as soft as cloth. 



The shields are made of hides partially dried in the sun, and 

 then beaten with hammers until they are stiff and chy. Two 

 broad belts of a differently-coloured skin are sewed into them 

 longitudinally, and sticks inserted to make them rigid and not 

 liable to bend easily. The shield is a great protection in their 

 way of fighting with spears, but they also trust largely to their 

 agility in springing aside from the coming javelin. The shield 

 assists when so many spears are thrown that it is impossible not 

 to receive some of them. Their spears are light javelins ; and, 

 judging from what I have seen them do in elephant-hunting, I 

 believe, when they have room to make a rim and discharge them 

 with the aid of the jerk of stopping, they can throw them between 

 forty and fifty yards. They give them an upward direction in 

 the discharge, so that they come down on the object with acce- 

 lerated force. I saw a man who in battle had received one in 

 the shin ; the excitement of the moment prevented his feeling 

 any pain ; but, when the battle was over, the blade was found to 

 have split the bone, and become so impacted in the cleft that no 

 force could extract it. It was necessary to take an axe and 

 press the split bone asunder before the weapon could be taken 

 out. 



