256 
SENSAVAN, OR THE SHINING-ROCK. 
18 June, 
Near it are two or three other similar masses, but much inferior in 
size. 
The Sensavdn is one of the most celebrated places of the Trans- 
gariepine ; being the only spot where the sibilo * (sibeelo) is found. 
Hither all the surrounding nations repair for a supply of that orna- 
mental and, in their eyes, valuable substance. It constitutes in some 
degree an article of barter with the more distant tribes, and even 
among themselves ; so that the use of it extends over at least five 
degrees of latitude, or among every tribe which I have visited. 
This siMlo is a shining, powdery iron-ore of a steel-grey or 
blueish lustre, and soft and greasy to the touch, its particles ad- 
hering to the hands or clothes, and staining them of a dark-red or 
ferrugineous color. The skin is not easily freed from these glossy 
particles, even by repeated washing ; and wherever this substance is 
used, every thing soon becomes contaminated, and its glittering 
nature betrays it on every article which the wearer handles. 
The mode of preparing and using it, is simply grinding it 
together with grease, and smearing it generally over the body, but 
chiefly on the head ; and the hair is often so much loaded and clotted 
with an accumulation of it, that the clots exhibit the appearance of 
lumps of mineral. A Bachapin whose head is thus covered, con- 
siders himself as most admirably adorned, and in full dress ; and in- 
deed, to lay aside European prejudices, it is quite as becoming as our 
own hair-powder, and is a practice not more unreasonable than ours ; 
with which it may in some respects be compared. There is however 
a real utility in it, or rather in the grease, for those who do not 
wear caps ; it protects the head from the powerful, and perhaps dan- 
gerous, effects of a burning sun, as it equally does, from those of 
wet and cold. Although the color of the sibilo be a brownish red, 
yet the micaceous particles give it a blueish tint in those places which 
reflect the light more strongly. 
I have succeeded in preparing from the sibilo a very singular 
in this point of view. On the side of the hill, and nearer towards the foreground, appear 
three small shallow caves, not connected with the Blinkklip, nor of the same nature. 
* See the note at page 414. of the first volume. 
