KAFFRARIAN WOMEN. 
221 
the " milk-sac " over her shoulder, and the child 
seizing it, with avidity, with both its hands, 
and tugging at it with all its might, is thus kept 
at rest, and its appetite amply appeased. 
Several of the women have very handsome 
faces; their arms and lower limbs are per- 
fect in mould and proportions. They usually 
wear a handkerchief, of some bright colour, 
bound round their heads. Around the neck they 
wear a string, from which is suspended a fringe 
of beadwork, which falls over the breasts, and 
hangs as low as the loins, called in the Kaffir 
tongue "amecklate." Around their waists they 
always have a u kaross" or skin fastened, and, 
under this, they wear the u encyEes" answering 
to the "nutdiie" in the men ; whilst out of their 
hut or village, they are never seen without a 
cloak of hide. This is usually adorned with 
stripes of leather, about four feet long and 
three inches wide, from which they append 
rows of brass buttons, usually attaching a but- 
ton for each ox that their husband has in his 
"Icraal'" and thus ostentatiously proclaiming 
their wealth and consequence. 
Polygamy is universally practised among 
these people, each Kaffir generally possessing 
four or five wives. This, and the early mingling 
of the sexes, together with the little heed paid to 
external forms, tends much, it is to be feared, 
