fastened to a belt. Many of them, who are affianced when very young, wear two aprons, a short. one in front, and a longer one behind.
Married women have short petticoats of roughly tanned leather, generally cowhide, with the hair inside; these reach to their knees, and are fastened on by double waistbands. A red-brown substance that is prepared from bark, and has a somewhat agreeable odour, is rubbed into the outer surface. Women who are suckling their infants wear mantles of letshwe-skin like the men, which are generally thrown across their back, and drawn over their bosom on the approach of a stranger.
In bad weather the women, and sometimes the men too, wrap themselves up in a huge circular leather cloak reaching to the ankles, and fastened at the throat with a strap or a brooch of wood or metal; it requires to be held together in front by the hand. As a rule the people go barefooted, which is much more practicable on their sandy soil than in the thorny districts south of the Zambesi; for long journeys, however, they wear sandals made of rough leather, which are fastened to the great toe and ankle by a strap across the instep.
The eastern vassal tribes who grow cotton make pieces of calico of all sizes, from handkerchiefs to sheets. The smaller pieces are used for men’s aprons, and the larger, which are one or two yards wide, and from one and a half to two and a half yards long, are used for domestic purposes; their narrower ends are all finished off with fringes, varying from four to sixteen inches in length. The Mashonas weave similar articles of clothing, but employ bast for the material instead of cotton.
