Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/97

 THE HEREROS. 71 land." The total number of the " Cattle Dunmrus " is estimated by Pulgrave at tigbty-five thousand, and this estimate has been confirmed by the missionaries stationed in their midst. The principal chief, who resides at Oti/imbingue, rules over thirty thousimd subjects. They are easily counted, not individually but in the mass, by the herds they drive to the pasturage. Each chief knows the number of his cattle, from which he is able to deduce the number of the herdsmen and their families. On an average three hundred persons are reckoned to the irerft, or encampment of cattle, with its secondary grazing grounds. Physically the Ilereros rank amongst the finest races in Africa. They are tall and well-made, although in reality not nearly so strong as might be supixjsed from their magnificent muscular development. With regular features of ulraost classical form, they fiave an open cheerful expression, but are easily irritated, and then they will often assume a ferocious look. Till recently those who had n"t been brought under the influence of the niissionaries went nearly naked. As becomes a race of pastors, they dress almost exclusively in skins and leather : thin strips, which if placed end to end would make a total length of perhaps JioO feet, hanging in thick fringes round their hips. They arc also fond of iron, zinc, or copper rings, armlets, and necklaces, and like most of the northern liantus they dispose the hair in tresses or ringlets stiffened with a mixture of fat and red ochre. The women on their part bedizen themselves with trinkets of all kinds, leather thongs, long hairpins, bracelets, shells, and glass beads, crowning the edifice with a thick leather headdress, to which are added three high ear-like attachments glistening with a coating of clay. Although salt is usually supposed to be an indispensable condiment, the contrary is proved by the diet of the Hereros, who neither buy nor collect this article from the coast lagoons ; nor do their cattle care to resort, as in other places, to the saline " licking stones." Traces of old matriarchal usages still survive amongst them. The wife is nearly free, and may separate at her j)leasure. The most solemn oath of a Ilerero is that " by the tears of his mother," and when the mother died young it was formerly usual to bury her child with her. Except the baptised childien, all the Hereros are circumcised, but beyond this rite they have scarcely any religious ceremonies except those performed for the j)urjx)se of securing the prosperity of their herds. In all these ceremonic s cow-dung plays a part, and every speck and shade of colour on the animal's coat has in their eyes a hidden meaning. The chief's daughter, guardian of the sacnd fire, sprinkles the cattle with lustral water, and when moving to a new c:nnping-ground she leads the way, holding a torch in her hand. Certain large lorest-trees art regarded by them as the ancestors of man, and several of these " mother trees " are mentioned by Galton and Andersson, to which the Flererospay regular homage. The nation was formerly divided into tribes, or rather castes (eanda), which had probably their origin in the family group, and which were named from the stars, the trees, and natural phenomena. Thus one caste was known as the " Children of the Sun," another of the " Rain," and so on; but these distinctions are gradually being effaced.