SOUTHERN AFRICA. 103 
such strings ; and while some are employed in this business, 
and in suspending thera on the branches of the shrubbery, 
others are engaged in broiling the strings coiled round and 
laid upon the ashes. As soon as the meat is just warmed 
through they take it off the fire, grasp it in both hands, and 
applying one end of the string to the mouth, soon get through 
a yard of flesh. The ashes of the green wood that adhere to 
the meat serve as a substitute for salt. AVhen a string of 
meat has passed through their hands, they free them of the 
fat and ashes by rubbing them over different parts of their 
body ; and the grease and dirt applied from time to 
time, and which are thus suffered to accumulate in this state 
perhaps for a whole year, sometimes melting by the side of a 
large fire and catching up all the dust and dirt that may be 
floating in the air, cover at length the surface of the body 
with a thick black coating that entirely conceals the real na- 
tural color of the skin. This is discoverable only on the 
face and hands, Avhich they keep somewhat cleaner than the 
other parts of the body by rubbing them occasionally with 
the dung of cattle, which takes up the grease, when pure 
water would have no effect. 
The dress of a Hottentot is very simple. It consists chiefly 
of a belt made of a thong cut from the skin of some animal. 
From this belt is suspended in front a kind of case made of 
the skin of the jackal. The shape is that of a nine-pin cut 
through the middle longitudinally ; the convex and hairy 
side of which is uppermost. The intention of this case is to 
receive those parts of the body for which most nations have 
agreed in adopting some sort of covering ; but few, who arc 
