132 
ANTALOW. 
a scarf over their shoulders, and fastened with a gold clasp across 
the breast. Round their heads they wore bandages, formed of yel- 
low, green, or red satin, tied behind, long, and streaming loosely 
as they rode. Some, instead of this ornament, had only fillets of 
skin round their heads, the hairs of which standing upwards, gave 
an additional wildness to their appearance. Some few had horns 
of gold, either perpendicular above their foreheads, or projecting 
forwards ; and several, on the upper part of their arm, had a silver 
disk, of both which Bruce has given a representation. Others wore 
bracelets of silver, in the shape of a horse collar, round their right 
arms, equal in number to the enemies they had slain. The horses 
were richly caparisoned, and bore on their fronts the bloody gar- 
ments of foes slaughtered by their riders. Each chief, after riding 
round the circus seven or eight times, presented himself directly 
before the Ras, in a menacing attitude, recited in pompous language 
the actions which he had performed, and concluded by throwing 
down before him the indubitable trophies of his valour, which had 
before been hanging above the bracelets on his right arm.* One 
chief brought only a knife, that he had taken from his opponent. 
The chiefs are not the only ones who thus present themselves be- 
fore the Ras, for every ragged rascal, among the foot soldiers who 
enter in a throng after the horsemen, has the same privilege. 
Among these latter, horrible to relate, were some wretches, pro- 
* Ludolf, speaking of this custom, among the Galla, from whom the custom is 
probably derived, says, " Adhuc necesse est indicium csesi hostis post pugnam afFerre. 
Primo quidem capita ceu honestissimam corporis partem attulerunt; at postquam de 
sexu imberbium dubitaretur, turpissimum viris araputavere. Res dictu foeda numerant 
et cumulant exercitus coram. Hac ratione sciri non potest hostis an socius fuerit 
occisus." 
