For The Former, The Hide Is Stretched Out
By Means Of Pegs, And Dried.
Ten or a dozen men then collect round it
with small adzes, which, when sharpened with an iron bodkin,
Are capable of shaving off the substance of the skin on the fleshy side
until it is quite thin; when sufficiently thin, a quantity of brain
is smeared over it, and some thick milk. Then an instrument
made of a number of iron spikes tied round a piece of wood,
so that the points only project beyond it, is applied to it
in a carding fashion, until the fibres of the bulk of it are quite loose.
Milk or butter is applied to it again, and it forms a garment
nearly as soft as cloth.
The shields are made of hides partially dried in the sun,
and then beaten with hammers until they are stiff and dry.
Two broad belts of a differently-colored skin are sewed
into them longitudinally, and sticks inserted to make them rigid
and not liable to bend easily. The shield is a great protection
in their way of fighting with spears, but they also trust largely
to their agility in springing aside from the coming javelin.
The shield assists when so many spears are thrown that it is impossible
not to receive some of them. Their spears are light javelins;
and, judging from what I have seen them do in elephant-hunting,
I believe, when they have room to make a run and discharge them
with the aid of the jerk of stopping, they can throw them between
forty and fifty yards. They give them an upward direction in the discharge,
so that they come down on the object with accelerated force.
I saw a man who in battle had received one in the shin;
the excitement of the moment prevented his feeling any pain;
but, when the battle was over, the blade was found to have split the bone,
and become so impacted in the cleft that no force could extract it.
It was necessary to take an axe and press the split bone asunder
before the weapon could be taken out.
Chapter 10.
The Fever - Its Symptoms - Remedies of the native Doctors -
Hospitality of Sekeletu and his People - One of their Reasons for Polygamy
- They cultivate largely - The Makalaka or subject Tribes -
Sebituane's Policy respecting them - Their Affection for him -
Products of the Soil - Instrument of Culture - The Tribute -
Distributed by the Chief - A warlike Demonstration -
Lechulatebe's Provocations - The Makololo determine to punish him -
The Bechuanas - Meaning of the Term - Three Divisions of the great
Family of South Africans.
On the 30th of May I was seized with fever for the first time.
We reached the town of Linyanti on the 23d; and as my habits
were suddenly changed from great exertion to comparative inactivity,
at the commencement of the cold season I suffered from
a severe attack of stoppage of the secretions, closely resembling
a common cold. Warm baths and drinks relieved me, and I had no idea
but that I was now recovering from the effects of a chill,
got by leaving the warm wagon in the evening in order to conduct
family worship at my people's fire. But on the 2d of June
a relapse showed to the Makololo, who knew the complaint,
that my indisposition was no other than the fever, with which
I have since made a more intimate acquaintance. Cold east winds
prevail at this time; and as they come over the extensive flats
inundated by the Chobe, as well as many other districts
where pools of rain-water are now drying up, they may be supposed
to be loaded with malaria and watery vapor, and many cases of fever follow.
The usual symptoms of stopped secretion are manifested -
shivering and a feeling of coldness, though the skin is quite hot
to the touch of another. The heat in the axilla, over the heart
and region of the stomach, was in my case 100 Deg.; but along the spine
and at the nape of the neck 103 Deg. The internal processes were all,
with the exception of the kidneys and liver, stopped;
the latter, in its efforts to free the blood of noxious particles,
often secretes enormous quantities of bile. There were pains along the spine,
and frontal headache. Anxious to ascertain whether the natives
possessed the knowledge of any remedy of which we were ignorant,
I requested the assistance of one of Sekeletu's doctors.
He put some roots into a pot with water, and, when it was boiling,
placed it on a spot beneath a blanket thrown around both me and it.
This produced no immediate effect; he then got a small bundle of different
kinds of medicinal woods, and, burning them in a potsherd nearly to ashes,
used the smoke and hot vapor arising from them as an auxiliary to the other
in causing diaphoresis. I fondly hoped that they had a more potent remedy
than our own medicines afford; but after being stewed in their vapor-baths,
smoked like a red herring over green twigs, and charmed `secundem artem',
I concluded that I could cure the fever more quickly than they can.
If we employ a wet sheet and a mild aperient in combination with quinine,
in addition to the native remedies, they are an important aid
in curing the fever, as they seem to have the same stimulating effects
on the alimentary canal as these means have on the external surface.
Purgatives, general bleedings, or indeed any violent remedies, are injurious;
and the appearance of a herpetic eruption near the mouth
is regarded as an evidence that no internal organ is in danger.
There is a good deal in not "giving in" to this disease.
He who is low-spirited, and apt to despond at every attack,
will die sooner than the man who is not of such a melancholic nature.
The Makololo had made a garden and planted maize for me,
that, as they remarked when I was parting with them to proceed to the Cape,
I might have food to eat when I returned, as well as other people.
The maize was now pounded by the women into fine meal.
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