Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1893 — PICTURES OF MATABELES. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PICTURES OF MATABELES.

Types of the People "Who Have Just Had Some Bitter Experiences. New York Sun. The pictures of Matabeles that are printed here show types of a people whom the Zulus regard as degenerate because the Zulu blood of the Matabeles has been so largely mixed with that of tribes living far north of Zulu Land.

Intermarriage with the mild and timid Mashona women and other slaves began to undermine the Matabele Zulu stock over a half century ago. Still the men do not seem to have grown less warlike. Even if their mothers were taken from tribes that dread war, the boys were taught from infancy to regard war as their trade and cowardice as a crime. The sons of Mashona mothers have stood up in the present war, to be shot down by the improved guns of their white enemies, as the Mashonas themselves never would have done.

The Matabele warrior, shown here, is a fine, specimen of physical manhood. On one arm is his bullhide shield, on which he catches, unharmed, the assegais or arrows of his enemies. In one hand he grasps two assegais, the weapon which the Zulus have made sb terribly effective at short range. In the other hand he holds a sort of knob kerry. It is a stone fastened securely to a handle. This rude weapon figures prominently in Matabele warfare. It is used both as a throwing and a striking weapon, and many a skull has been cracked, by it. One of the cable dispatches the other <say mentioned it as figuring in the present war.

Another picture shows one of the sorcerers or medicine men, a class of impostors who have great influence in Matabele Land. Even the intelligent old king always consults the medicine men when he engages in important enterprises. It has hitherto been perfectly safe to proclaim success for the Matabeles when they went on the war path, and you may be sure that before the Matabeles had the temerity to force a war upon the whites, a little while ago, the medicinemen had consulted their infallible omens and solemnly assured the king that he would wipe the hated British off the face of the earth.

The women in Matabele Land who are thought to be the handsomest are those who are fattest. The wives of the king and chief men are fed and cared for with' a particular view to rapid increase in advoirdupois.

MATABELE WAREIOR.

MATABELE SORCERER.

MATABELE WOMAN.

MATABELE TRUMPETER.