As to the various adornments of feathers, strange head dresses, and other decorations with which the Kaffir soldier loves to bedeck himself, we shall find them described in the chapter relating to Kaffir warfare. There is, however, one class of ornaments that must be briefly mentioned; namely, the rings of different material which the Kaffirs place on their wrists, arms, and ankles. These are sometimes made of ivory, often of metal, sometimes of hide, sometimes of beads, and sometimes of grass. This last mentioned bracelet is perhaps the simplest of them all.
Men who have been fortunate enough to kill an elephant, and rich enough to be able to use part of the tusks for their own purposes, generally cut off a foot or so from the base of each tusk for the purpose of making armlets, at once trophies of their valor and proofs of their wealth. The reader is perhaps aware that the tusk of an elephant, though hard and solid at the point, is soft at the base, and has only a mere shell of hard ivory, the interior being filled with the soft vascular substance by which the tusk is continually lengthened and enlarged. Indeed, the true ivory is only found in that portion of the tusk which projects from the head; the remainder, which is deeply imbedded in the skull, being made of soft substance inclosed in a shell of ivory.
It is easy enough, therefore, for the Kaffir hunter to cut off a portion of the base of the tusk, and to remove the soft vascular substance which fills it, leaving a tube of ivory, very thin and irregular at the extreme base, and becoming thicker toward the point. His next business is, to cut this tube into several pieces, so as to make rings of ivory, some two or three inches in width, and differing much in the thickness of material. Those which are made from the base of the tusk, and which have therefore a large diameter and no great thickness, are carefully polished, and placed on the arm above the elbow, while those of smaller diameter and thicker substance are merely slipped over the hand and worn as bracelets. There is now before me a photographic portrait of a son of the celebrated chief Macomo, who is wearing two of these ivory rings, one on the left arm and the other on the wrist. A necklace, composed of leopard’s teeth and claws, aids in attesting his skill as a hunter, and for the rest of his apparel the less said the better.
A pair of these armlets is shown in the [illustration] on page 39. They are sketched from specimens in the collection of Colonel Lane Fox. The first of them is very simple. It consists merely of a piece, some two inches in width, cut from the base of an elephant’s tusk, and moderately polished. There is no attempt at ornament about it.
The second specimen is an example of much more elaborate construction. It is cut from the more solid portion of the tusk, and weighs very much more than its companion armlet. Instead of being of uniform thickness throughout, it is shaped something like a quoit, or rather like a pair of quoits, with their flat sides placed together. The hole through which the arm passes is nicely rounded, and very smoothly polished, the latter circumstance being probably due to the friction of the wearer’s arm. It is ornamented by a double row of holes made around the aperture. The ivory is polished by means of a wet cord held at both ends, and drawn briskly backward and forward.
If the reader will refer to [page 33], he will see that by the side of the conical breast ornament which has already been described there is a bracelet of beads. This is made of several strings of beads, white predominating, and red taking the next place. The bead strings are first laid side by side, and then twisted spirally into a loose kind of rope, a plan which brings out their colors very effectively. Metal is sometimes used for the same purpose, but not so frequently as the materials which have been mentioned. Mr. Grout mentions a curious specimen of one of these ornaments, which was made of brass. “I have a rare antique of this kind before me, a royal armlet of early days, of the Zulu country. It is said to have been made in the time of Senzangakona, and to have descended from him to Tchaka, thence to Dingan, thence to Umpande (Panda), who gave it to one of his chief captains, who, obliged to leave Zululand by Kechwayo’s uprising, brought it with him and sold it to me. It is made of brass, weighs about two pounds, and bears a good many marks of the smith’s attempt at the curious and the clever.”
Brass and iron wire is frequently used for the manufacture of armlets, and tolerably heavy ornaments are sometimes found of the latter metal. Some years ago, a curious circumstance occurred with regard to these metallic armlets. A shining metallic powder was one day discovered, and was found capable of being smelted like iron, and made into ornaments. The chiefs were so pleased with this metal, which was more glittering than iron, that they reserved it for themselves, and gave away their iron ornaments to their followers. Some little time afterward, a contagious disease spread through the country, and several chiefs died. Of course the calamity was attributed to witchcraft, as is every death or illness among the Kaffir chiefs, and the business of discovering the offender was intrusted, as usual, to the witch doctors, a strange class of men, who will be fully described in a future page. After making a number of ineffectual guesses, they came to the conclusion that the cause of the disease lay in the new-fangled metal, which had superseded the good old iron of the past. In consequence of this verdict, the unfortunate man who discovered the metal was put to death as an accessory, the chiefs resumed their iron ornaments, and the king issued an edict forbidding the use of the metal which had done so much harm.
CHAPTER VI.
FEMININE DRESS AND ORNAMENTS.
WHEN DRESS IS FIRST WORN — PAINT AND OIL — THE FIRST GARMENT, AND ITS IMPORT — APRONS OF KAFFIR GIRLS — VARIOUS MATERIALS OF WHICH THE APRONS ARE MADE — BEADS AND LEATHER — CHANGE OF DRESS ON BETROTHAL — DRESS OF A MARRIED WOMAN — THE RED TOP-KNOT, AND ESTIMATION IN WHICH IT IS HELD — JEALOUSY AND ITS RESULTS — AN ELABORATE DRESS — ORDINARY APRON OF A MARRIED WOMAN — BEAD APRON OF A CHIEF’S WIFE — CURIOUS BRACELETS OF METAL — THEIR APPARENT INCONVENIENCE — BRACELETS MADE OF ANTELOPE’S HOOF — COSTUMES USED IN DANCES — QUANTITY OF BEADS USED IN THE DRESS — A STRANGE HEAD DRESS — BELTS AND SEMI-BELTS OF KAFFIR WOMEN — NECKLACES — GOOD INTEREST AND BAD SECURITY — IMITATION OF EUROPEAN FASHION — SUBSTITUTE FOR HANDKERCHIEFS — ANECDOTE OF A WEDDING DANCE — KAFFIR GALLANTRY — A SINGULAR DECORATION — KAFFIR CASTANETS — EARRINGS OF VARIOUS KINDS.
As in the last chapter the dress and ornaments of the Kaffir men were described, the subject of this chapter will be the costume and decoration of the women.