The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

AMATONGALAND. 193now these warlike tribes live only on the proud memory of their past heroic deedsand conquests, perhaps dimly conscious that these very glories, after bringingabout the destruction of their military power, render the people themselves lesscapable than others of turning to peaceful ways, and thus successfully continuingthe struggle for existence. Constituted of so many discordant elements, the Zulunation was distinguished from the other branches ofthe Kafir race mainly by itswarlike institutions and the military ardour engendered by hereditary training.But being the descendants of picked men, they are generally a handsome people,tall, ^-igorous, active, of dignified carriage, and skilful at all bodilj^ exercises.They possess such natural grace that all costumes alike become them.At the same time they arc fidly conscious, if not a little proud, of their physicaladvantages, which thej' endeavour to heighten by the elegant fold of their flowingtoga, by adorning arms, legs, and breast with rings and pearls, and decking thehead with plumes and flowers. The married men arc fond of disposing the hairin the form of a coronet, stiffening it with gum and a mixture of clay and ochre.Of a kindly cheerful disposition, they seem to harbour no rancorous feelingagainst their white conquerors ; but on the other hand, they never forget or forgivea personal wrong.Formerly the characteristic fetishes were the assegai and warrior's shield.Travellers of the past generation describe with a sort of awe the military dancesand processions, when the fierce Zulu men of war, adorned with the horns and tailsof oxen, defiled before their king, the while singing the tidings from the battlefield,the " news of the assegai." But the obligation to dwell in peace under thethreat of still more potent fetishes, the gun and rifle of the white man, will doubtlesstend to modif}'^ their superstitions and soften their tribal usages. Althoughstill for the most part refractory to the glad tidings of the gospel, they willgradually cease to recognise the soiJs of their forefathers in the familiar snakesgliding about amid their dwellings. Like their kinsmen in Xatal, the Zulus ofthe region beyond the Tugcla arc alreadj^ exchanging the sword for the plough,while the hitherto neglected industrial arts have begun to make some progress intheir village communities. The blacksmith's trade, however, was always held inhonour, and the native metallurgists were long acquainted with the process ofmaking a more durable iron than that imported by the English, while theirjewellers had learnt to work the copper obtained by thorn from the Portuguese ofLourenco Marques.A.MATOXGALAND AND SWAZILAND.North of Zululand proper stretches the narrow domain of the peaceful Amatonga(Ama-Tonga) nation, whose name recalls their former subjection to the Zulu conquerors.Being farther removed from the Natal frontier, and dwelling in seclusionalong the shores of Lake St. Lucia and the coast lagoons, these agriculturaltribes had hitherto kept more aloof from European influences. They were alsoprotected from intrusion by the malarious climate of the low-lying coastlandsinhabited by them. Nevertheless the ubiquitous German trader, Liideritz, aftervol.. Xlll. o