CAFFRARIA. 
521 
the cows, they throw aside this cloak, because, say they, it is 
easier to dry our skins than our cloaks. They wear no co- 
vering on their heads : they have sandals on their feet, instead 
of shoes, which only protect the soles. Besides the loose 
cloak and sandals, the men have no other covering; which 
indicates a more barbarous state than any other nation which 
I visited. This state of nudity made the Matchappees at 
Lattakoo, who had seen a plundering party of them, speak of 
them as the greatest savages they had ever seen, and it served 
to intimidate them when the Caffres attacked them. They 
carry constantly with them a walking stick, a club, and two 
or three assagays. When they go to war, or to hunt lions, 
they use a kind of oblong shields. They are remarkably fond 
of ornaments, having rings and beads on every part of theii 
body; and on the crown of the head they wear a bunch of 
jackalfs hair, fastened into a handle of brass. Their rings are 
of ivory, brass, iron, &c. 
The women wear a cloak resembling those used by the 
men, tied round the middle of the body by means of a leathern 
girdle. They generally allow the upper half to hang down be- 
hind, except in carrying their children on their back, when 
they bring up their cloak over them, and tie it round their neck, 
to prevent their falling. They wear caps made of the skin of 
an animal, which are long, becoming gradually narrower till 
they terminate in a |)oint, which is ornamented with rows of 
beads. Both women and children wear small aprons of 
skin, of the same kind as their caps. They wear metal rings 
on their fingers and great toes, but no shoes or sandals. The 
richer sort sew rows of buttons on the backs of their cloaks, 
and on their shoulders a bunch of tails of different animals, 
especially of tigers and wild cats. 
The men, but more frequently the women, adorn their 
arms, backs, and breasts, with row^s of small scars. These 
are formed by piercing the skin with a pointed iron, and 
pulling it forcibly up under the skin, so as to make it remain 
prominent above the surface. 
They prepare the hides of cow s and oxen, with which they 
make their cloaks, by first rubbing off all the flesh and blood 
from the inside by a certain kind of stone ; after which they 
rub the hairy side with the juice of what is well known in the 
Colony by the name of Hottentot's fig, then with cow dung, 
after which it feels smooth aiid soft, and has much the ap- 
pearance of our cloth. 
The Caffres use no tables, dishes, knives, or forks at their 
meals, but every one helps himself, by means of sticks, to 
3 X 
