fringes of Angora-goat fleece. This, as a decoration, was both graceful and
effective; it was worn round the body and above each elbow, and fell in soft
white flakes among the brilliant colouring and against the dusky skin. Lynx-tails
depended like lappets on each side of her face, which was overshadowed and
almost hidden by a profusion of sakabula feathers. “This bird,” says Lady
Barker, “has a very beautiful plumage, and is sufficiently rare for the natives to
attach a peculiar value and charm to the tail-feathers; they are like those of a
young cock, curved and slender, and of a dark chestnut colour, with a white eye
at the extreme tip of each feather.” Among all this thick, floating plumage were
interspersed small bladders, and skewers or pins wrought out of tusks. Each
witch-finder wore her own hair, or rather wool; highly greased, and twisted up
with twine until it ceases to wear the appearance of hair, and hangs around the
face like a thick fringe, dyed deep red.
Bent double, and with a creeping, cat-like gait, as if seeking a trail, out stepped
Nozilwane. Every movement of her undulating body kept time to the beat of the
girls’ hands and their low crooning chant. Presently she pretended to find the
thing she sought, and with a series of wild pirouettes leaped into the air, shaking
her spears and brandishing her little shield like a Bacchante. Nowamso, another
of the party, was determined that her companion should not carry off all the
applause, and she too, with a yell and a leap, sprang into the dance to the sound
of louder grunts and harder hand-claps. Nowamso showed much anxiety to
display her back, where a magnificent snake skin, studded in a regular pattern
with brass-headed nails, floated like a stream. She was attired also in a splendid
kilt of leopard skins, decorated with red rosettes, and her toilette was considered
more careful and artistic than any of the others. Brighter her bangles, whiter her
goat-fringes, and more elaborately painted her face. Nozilwane, however, had
youth and a wonderful self-reliance on her side. The others, though they all
joined in and hunted out an imaginary enemy, and in turn exulted over his
discovery, soon became breathless and spent, and were glad when their
attendants led them away to be anointed and to drink water.
“As for another of the ‘witch-finders,’ the great, big Nozinyanga, she danced
like Queen Elizabeth, ‘high and disposedly,’ and no wonder, for I should think
she weighed at least fifteen stone. Ungiteni, in a petticoat of white Angora-goat
skin, and a corsage of bladders and teeth, beads and viper skins, was nothing
remarkable; neither was Um-à-noujozzla, a melancholy-looking personage, with
an enormous wig-like coiffure of red woollen ringlets and white skewers. The
physiognomy, too, was a trifle more stolid and commonplace than that of her