40 
M E S U R I L. 
of a cannon, an example which was thought necessary to strike the 
neighbouring chieftains with awe. To the south of Mosambique 
lies the district of St. Cul, which supplies about three thousand 
fighting men. The Sheik of this district died about a month 
before I arrived at Mosambique, and a successor had not been 
appointed, as the Governor did not feel himself sufficiently 
acquainted with the state of affairs to sanction the person who 
had assumed that situation without farther enquiry. Even the 
united force of these chiefs is scarcely adequate to resist the 
furious attacks of the Makooa. 
In addition to the bodily strength of the Makooa, may be added 
the deformity of their visage, which greatly augments the ferocity 
of their aspect. They are very fond of tattooing their skins, and 
they practise it so rudely, that they sometimes raise the marks 
an eighth of an inch above the surface. The fashion most in 
vogue is to make a stripe down the forehead along the nose to 
the chin, and another in a direct angle across from ear to ear, 
indented in a peculiar way so as to give the face the appearance 
of its having been sewed together in four parts. They file their 
teeth to a point, in a manner that gives the whole set the 
appearance of a coarse saw, and this operation, to my surprise, 
does not injure either their whiteness or durability. They are 
likewise extremely fantastic in the mode of dressing their hair ; 
some shave only one side of the head, others both sides, leaving 
a kind of crest extending from the front to the nape of the neck, 
while a few are content to wear simply a knot on the top of their 
foreheads. They bore the gristle of the nose, and suspend to it 
ornaments made of copper or of bone. The protrusion of their 
