Chap. IX. 
PUBLIC EELiaiOUS SEEVICES. 
187 
dislike being seen at tbeir potations by persons of the opposite 
sex. They cnt tbeir woolly hair quite short, and delight in 
having the whole person shining with butter. Their dress is a 
kilt reaching to the knees; its material is ox-liide, made as 
soft as cloth. It is not ungraceful. A soft skin mantle is thrown 
across the shoulders when the lady is unemployed, but when 
engaged in any sort of labour she throws this aside, and works 
in the Idlt alone. The ornaments most coveted are large brass 
anklets as thick as the little finger, and armlets of both brass 
and ivory, the latter often an inch broad. The rings are so 
heavy that the ankles are often bhstered by the weight pressing 
down; but it is the fashion, and is borne as magnanimously as 
tight lacing and tight shoes among ourselves. Strings of beads 
are hung around the neck, and the fashionable colours being hght 
green and pink, a trader could get almost anything he chose for 
beads of these colours. 
At our public religious services in the kotla, the Makololo 
women always behaved with decorum from the first, except at the 
conclusion of the prayer. When aU knelt down, many of those 
who had children, in following the example of the rest, bent over 
theft httle ones; the clnldren, in terror of being crushed to 
death, set up a simultaneous yell, wluch so tickled the whole 
assembly there was often a subdued titter, to be turned into a 
hearty laugh as soon as they heard Amen. This was not so dif¬ 
ficult to overcome in them as similar peccadilloes were fti the case 
of the women farther south. Long after we had settled at Ma- 
botsa, when preaclnng on the most solemn subjects, a woman 
might be observed to look round, and, seeing a neighbour seated 
on her dress, give her a hunch with the elbow to make her move 
off; the other would retmm it with interest, and perhaps the 
remark, “ Take the nasty thing away, will you ? ” Then three or 
four would begin to hustle the first offenders, and the men to 
swear at them all, by way of enforcing silence. 
Great numbers of little trifling tilings like these occur, and 
would not be worth the mention but that one camiot form a cor¬ 
rect idea of missionary work except by examination of the 
mmutise. At the risk of appearing frivolous to some, I shall 
continue to descend to mere trifles. 
»The numbers who attended at the summons by the herald, 
who acted as beadle, were often from five to seven hundred. 
