The uncivilized races of men in all countries of the world; vol. 1 of 2: Being a comprehensive account of their manners and customs, and of their physical, social, mental, moral and religious characteristicsWood, J. G. (John George)
History
The uncivilized races of men in all countries of the world; vol. 1 of 2: Being a comprehensive account of their manners and customs, and of their physical, social, mental, moral and religious characteristics
Wood, J. G. (John George)
Anthropology; Ethnology; Manners and customs
Men who have been fortunate enough to kill an elephant, and rich enough
to be able to use part of the tusks for their own purposes, generally
cut off a foot or so from the base of each tusk for the purpose of
making armlets, at once trophies of their valor and proofs of their
wealth. The reader is perhaps aware that the tusk of an elephant,
though hard and solid at the point, is soft at the base, and has only
a mere shell of hard ivory, the interior being filled with the soft
vascular substance by which the tusk is continually lengthened and
enlarged. Indeed, the true ivory is only found in that portion of the
tusk which projects from the head; the remainder, which is deeply
imbedded in the skull, being made of soft substance inclosed in a shell
of ivory.
It is easy enough, therefore, for the Kaffir hunter to cut off a
portion of the base of the tusk, and to remove the soft vascular
substance which fills it, leaving a tube of ivory, very thin and
irregular at the extreme base, and becoming thicker toward the point.
His next business is, to cut this tube into several pieces, so as to
make rings of ivory, some two or three inches in width, and differing
much in the thickness of material. Those which are made from the base
of the tusk, and which have therefore a large diameter and no great
thickness, are carefully polished, and placed on the arm above the
elbow, while those of smaller diameter and thicker substance are merely
slipped over the hand and worn as bracelets. There is now before me a
photographic portrait of a son of the celebrated chief Macomo, who is
wearing two of these ivory rings, one on the left arm and the other on
the wrist. A necklace, composed of leopard’s teeth and claws, aids in
attesting his skill as a hunter, and for the rest of his apparel the
less said the better.
A pair of these armlets is shown in the illustration on page 39. They
are sketched from specimens in the collection of Colonel Lane Fox.
The first of them is very simple. It consists merely of a piece, some
two inches in width, cut from the base of an elephant’s tusk, and
moderately polished. There is no attempt at ornament about it.
The second specimen is an example of much more elaborate construction.
It is cut from the more solid portion of the tusk, and weighs very much
more than its companion armlet. Instead of being of uniform thickness
throughout, it is shaped something like a quoit, or rather like a pair
of quoits, with their flat sides placed together. The hole through
which the arm passes is nicely rounded, and very smoothly polished,
the latter circumstance being probably due to the friction of the
wearer’s arm. It is ornamented by a double row of holes made around the
aperture. The ivory is polished by means of a wet cord held at both
ends, and drawn briskly backward and forward.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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