SOUTHERN AFRICA. 105 
cattle — tilings useless, worthless, and even pernicious, for what 
was their only support, the very soul of their existence. 
The thongs of dried skins that had hitherto encircled their 
legs from the ankle to the knee, as a protection against the 
bite of poisonous animals, were now despised and thrown 
away, and glass beads or copper chains were substituted in 
their place. Thus what had been adopted as a matter of 
necessity and prudence passed into an affair of fashion. 
Then' necks, arms, and legs were loaded with glass beads : 
but the largest and most splendid of these ornaments were 
bestowed upon the little apron, about seven or eight inches 
wide, that hangs from the waist and reaches barely to the 
middle of the thigh. Great pains seem to be taken by the 
women to decorate, and thereby draw the attention towards, 
this part of their persons. Large metal buttons, shells of the 
cypraea genus with the apertures outwards, glass beads of 
different colors, and any other articles which are shewy, are 
attached to the borders of this apron. Those who either 
cannot afford to wear glass beads, or who have no taste for 
the fashion, wear an apron of a different sort, which has a 
very odd appearance : it is part of the skin of an animal cut 
into threads which hang like a tassel of fringe between the 
thighs, reaching about half-way to the knee, and leaving the 
exterior and anterior parts of the thigh entirely bare. The 
thongs of such an apron are generally too thin and few to an- 
swer the pnrpose of concealment. Instead of the tail which 
has been adopted by the men, the women wear a sheep's 
skin which completely covers the posterior part of the body 
from the waist to the calf of the leg, and just wide enough to 
skirt the exterior part of the thigh. The rattling of this 
