The Town
Of Tarrangolle Is Arranged With Several Entrances, In The Shape Of Low
Archways Through The Palisades; These Are
Closed at night by large
branches of the hooked thorn of the kittur bush (a species of mimosa).
The main
Street is broad, but all others are studiously arranged to
admit of only one cow, in single file, between high stockades; thus, in
the event of an attack, these narrow passages could be easily defended,
and it would be impossible to drive off their vast herds of cattle
unless by the main street. The large cattle kraals are accordingly
arranged in various quarters in connexion with the great road, and the
entrance of each kraal is a small archway in the strong iron-wood fence
sufficiently wide to admit one ox at a time.
Suspended from the arch is a bell, formed of the shell of the Dolape
palm-nut, against which every animal must strike either its horns or
back, on entrance.
Every tinkle of the bell 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 Latome, 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 sufficiently 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 native -
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 ladies would be startled at the fact, that to perfect the
coiffure of a man requires a period of from eight to ten years!
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