THE A M A PON DA KATIES, 
1 ,,K Amaponda tribe- ot Kafirs occupies the country lying southward of Natal, from the river Imzimculu to the 
boundary ol l lie Amatembu and Atnakosa. They differ in some respects from the Zulus in their customs and modes of 
life, and especially in the manner of wearing their hair, which, instead 
of being shaved off, as is usual amongst their more northern brethren, 
is cultivated to grow long, and worn in a well-dressed bushy mass, on 
the summit of which is fastened the “ issikoko,” or ring. The women, 
as may be seen by the accompanying portrait, twist their hair into 
ringlets, which are thickly smeared with red ochre and grease. The 
subject of our sketch is a woman of rank amongst the Amaponda 
people: in her hair she wears a porcupine’s quill, and in the disposal 
of her beads and the arrangement of her dress differs considerably from 
the Zulu women. 
If possible, the Amapondas are even more barbarous than the Zulus. 
It is customary on the accession of a ruling chief to put to death 
one of his near relations—generally a brother—and to w r asb him with 
the blood of the victim, using the skull as a receptacle to hold it. 
Umyaki, an independent Amaponda chief, defeated a party of Amatembu, 
and a son of one of the enemy’s chiefs fell into his hands: he 
at once slew' him with his own assagai, ordered his heart and liver 
to he boiled, with the broth of which, poured into the skull of his 
prisoner, he caused himself to be washed. 
Witchcraft has its stronghold amongst the Amaponda Katirs. To 
propitiate the departed spirits for success to Faku’s army, just taking 
the field, the witch-doctors ordered the fore-leg of a living bull to he 
cut off at the shoulder, ail'd the soldiers with their teeth to tear off the 
undressed flesh from the reeking limb. The mode of killing their cattle 
is singular amongst the Amapondas. They throw the animal on its hack, seizing the horns and legs, and after opening 
its breast with an assagai, they thrust in their arm and tear out the heart. 
N A MANTA Z A, A WOMAN OF Til R \M ARONDA TRIBE. 
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