J42 
EXHUMATION OF THE BEAD . 
[chap. V. 
formed of the shell of the Dolape palm-nut, against 
which every animal must strike either its horns or 
hack, on entrance. Every tinkle of the hell announces 
the passage of an ox into the kraal, and they are 
thus counted every evening when brought home from 
pasture. 
I had noticed, during the march from Latoxne, that 
the vicinity of every town was announced by heaps of 
human remains. Bones and skulls formed a Golgotha 
within a quarter of a mile of every village. Some of 
these were in earthenware pots, generally broken; 
others lay strewn here and there; while a heap in 
the centre showed that some form had originally been 
observed in their disposition. This was explained by 
an extraordinary custom most rigidly observed by ’the 
Latookas. Should a man be killed in battle the body 
is allowed to remain where it fell, and is devoured by 
the vultures and hyenas; but should he die a natural 
death, he or she is buried in a shallow grave within 
a few feet of his own door, in the little courtyard that 
surrounds each dwelling. Funeral dances are then 
kept up in memory of the dead for several weeks; at 
the expiration of which time, the body being suffi¬ 
ciently decomposed, is exhumed. The bones are 
cleaned, and are deposited in an earthenware jar, 
and carried to a spot near the town which is 
regarded as the cemetery. I observed that they were 
not particular in regarding the spot as sacred, as 
signs of nuisances were present even upon the bones, 
that in civilized countries would have been regarded 
as an insult. 
There is little difficulty in describing the toilette of 
the natives—that of the men being simplified by the 
sole covering of the head, the body being entirely nude. 
It is curious to observe among these wild savages the 
consummate vanity displayed in their head-dresses. 
Every tribe has a distinct and unchanging fashion 
for dressing the hair; and so elaborate is the coiffure 
that hair-dressing is reduced to a science. European 
