94 THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTH AFRICA
	doomed to die, unless he could show another in place of it, torn from an enemy. No barbaric figure was ever more terrific and martial than the Zulu soldier in war-dress. Chaka's hair was cut close, except on the top of his head where the thick, crisp locks were matted or moulded into a ring made of a tree gum and polished to the likeness of ebony. Thick folds of otter pelt were wound round his head and great earrings of carved sugar-cane hung from the cut lobes of his ears, which were covered with pads of
	jackal's skin. From this turban projected two feet or more a jet-black crane feather, waving with every toss of his head. A circlet of twisted monkey and genet skins hung over his breast and back, and from his waist a thick flexible kilt of twisted skins hung to his knees. Bands of short-cut white oxtails circled his legs and arms, and the ruffles round his ankles made his bound­ing feet oddly like the winged Mercury. In his right hand he grasped his spear and swung at his left side his oval shield of white oxhide. Now pin with thorns a dozen bunches of the red feathers of the louri in the crisp tufts of his crown and scat-