The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-06-03
SOME CURIOUS CUSTOMS
OF SOUTH AFRICAN WOMEN

THE native women Of South Africa
give their infants four or five hot baths
daily" said Mrs. Ellen Goodenough, a
prominent delegate from the South
African mission field now attending
/ the ecumenicaI conference in New York
I City. They consider il necessary for
the health and proper development OF
the child. After these baths they rub
its little body with sort Of paint made
by mixing a soft clay with oil. This
completes its toilet and after feeding,
! it is placed on its little mat by the fire
TO sleep.
a mother does not leave her young
child in her kraal when she goes out
to gather wood fetch water or work
her farm, but carries II on her back in
a sling, which by the way, is made
by the man of the household. One of
the odd things about these Kafir-Zulus
is that the. men do the sewing. They
are both tailors and dressmakers and
fashion a bridal robe with as much skill
as they make a mans apron or war
shield. Of course You viii understand
that they use the same material, name
" hide, for all of these purposes.
But to go back to the babies, their
principal food as soon as they have
/ learned to drink from a gOurd, is the
whey which their mothers draw from
the ciabbered milk gathered in great
quantities for the men of the house
hold.
You must not fancy that the women
think of themselves in preparing the
food for the family. A womans taste
is of too little Importance. Indeed 1
think such a thing is not known 10 ex-
list. Food is prepared for the husband
and his friends according to his orders,
and if there should be anything left
/ over then the women and girls may eat
it in another part of their little hut, If
not they must satisfy their hunger
with whey, or fruits for which the men
are known to care very little. The
meals, for the men, usually consist OF
( several courses, of which boiled or
broiIed meat or fish is the first then
follows vegetables, of several varieties,
/ fruits. the clabber of which I have
spoken. and a sort of hasty pudding
made of corn meal with coarse brown
sugar sprinkled over it. Cooking is one
of the many duties performed by the
women and most of it is done in the
same vessel, an iron pot with a second
pot of the same size fitted over it as a
cover. In this clumsy vessel they man
age to do very creditable cooking. Be
sides boiling their meats, vegetables
and buildings, they manage to steam q
loaf of bread.
Their nuts, of which each woman
has one, is circular in shape and so low
! that she can only stand erect in the
center. The Zulu woman keeps it re-
markedly. clean when you consider that
| it is the only place in which she and
her family must live and at night the
/ dogs. goats. calves and chickens creep
/ in at the door and huddle in the cor
| ners assigned to them. This door is the
l sole opening to the house. IT is about
/ two and a half feet high, so of course
even the animals and children are COM
/ PEELED to crawl in and out.
Like her sisters all over the world
/ she is fond of ornaments and not only
delights in covering her body and limbs
with beads, rings, bangles and all sorts
of strange articles as charms, but takes
/ great pride in the number of scars she
] can show. Mothers often have the arms
and bosoms Of their young daughters