engaged in building a granary on a rock. Sbe first
lays a circular foundation of mud, into which she puts
sticks. On to these she plasters mud until the funnel-
shaped thing is about three feet high. A hole is left
near the top for inserting and extracting the grain,
and it is then thatched with grass ; and it effectually
keeps out the many rats and mice which swarm in
IRON s k i n - s c r a p e r n e e d l e s i n c a s e s
these parts. The costume of these natives is extremely
l im i t e d . A man is content with two cat-skins,
one in front and one behind, though the latter is not
always de rigueur. The women wear leathern aprons
and girdles, tied so tightly as almost to cut them in
two, and made of several long strips of leather, like
boot-laces fastened together. On to these they hang
ah the necessaries of their primitive life. At present
old cartridge cases are the fashion for holding snuff,
or decorated reeds, or wooden cases. Then they have
a few decorated bone ornaments, evidently of a mystic
character ; a skin-scraper or two with which to perform
their toilette, which articles are of the form and
shape of the strigil known to us from classical, times,
and the ends of the boot-laces are elegantly finished
off with brass or copper beads. The needle, too, is a
feature seldom absent from the man’s neck and girdle,
being a sharp-pointed bit of iron or brass with which
they pierce the skins and fasten them together with
threads of b a rk ; these needles are fitted into a
wooden case, which the more fanciful decorate with
bands of brass wire.
At M’lala too we saw the blind witch-doctor of
the village, dressed in all his savage toggery. Small
gourds with seeds inside to rattle were tied to his
calves. These are the fruit of the Oncoba spinosa. A
buck s horn with a chain was hung round his- neck,
with which he made a hideous noise. Odd chains
of beads decorated his neck, made out of the pods
of the Acacia litakunensis, and his arms and legs
were a mass of brass bracelets and anklets; and
his' hair resplendent with feathers completed the
fantastic appearance of this poor blind man, who
danced before us unceasingly, and made such hideous
noises that we were obliged to give him some beads
and ask him to stop.
The pass through which the road leads up from
the river country to Fort Victoria is now called
‘ Providential,’ by reason of the fact that the pioneer