distinguished parents, and supposed to be amulets to protect the rising town of Sesheke from fire and sword, and to guard the kingdom generally from assault and rapine.
Singing amongst the Marutse-Mabunda people is better than amongst the Bechuanas, and may be said in many respects to equal that of the Matabele Zulus, though still inferior in the great songs of war and death.
The dance to which I have said the king invited me on the 26th was called the kishi-dance, and is never performed except by the king’s order. Its main object seems to be to inflame animal passion, and it is danced by two men, one of whom is supposed to represent a woman, or occasionally by two couples. The performers step forward from a group of young people, who are all singing most vigorously, and clapping their hands in time to the great tubular drums that are being sounded. Having turned their faces towards the king, they commence a series of gestures indicating, with many contortions, the advances of one party coquettishly rejected by the other. The costumes being royal property I failed to get possession of any of them. They consist of a mask with a network attached to it, and a peculiar covering for the loins. The masks, which are a specialité in Mabunda handicraft, are modelled by boys from clay and cow-dung, and painted with chalk and red ochre. They are considerably larger than the head, completely covering the neck. Altogether they bear a sort of resemblance to a helmet with a vizor; small openings are left for the eyes and mouth, and sometimes for the nose; upon the top are knobs adorned in the middle
