. Annals of the South African Museum = Annale van die Suid-Afrikaanse Museum. Natural history. PEDI SKIN DRESSING TECHNIQUE 161. Figure 19 The next step is to smear the skin with fat from the fruit (ditshidi) of the mochidi tree {Ximenia caffra Sond.). The small fruit is red when ripe but turns black on boiling. After boiling it is allowed to dry out and then the kernel is taken out and ground between grinding stones till it forms an oily paste (Fig. 18). The skin is again pegged out, hair-side down on the layer of dried grass and the fat is rubbed into the inner side of the skin with a wooden
. Annals of the South African Museum = Annale van die Suid-Afrikaanse Museum. Natural history. PEDI SKIN DRESSING TECHNIQUE 161. Figure 19 The next step is to smear the skin with fat from the fruit (ditshidi) of the mochidi tree {Ximenia caffra Sond.). The small fruit is red when ripe but turns black on boiling. After boiling it is allowed to dry out and then the kernel is taken out and ground between grinding stones till it forms an oily paste (Fig. 18). The skin is again pegged out, hair-side down on the layer of dried grass and the fat is rubbed into the inner side of the skin with a wooden peg (pabolo). After some time the hide is again brayed, rubbed and wrung with the hands to help the fat to draw deep into the skin. The hide is now ready to be cut but before doing this the skinworker uses an ordinary knife to straighten it out. Then he proceeds to cut a garment to the required shape. The article seen was a woman's back apron or skirt, ntepa, and the informants stated that two could be cut out of a small hide and three out of a large hide. From the offcuts a girl's smaller back apron could be made. The width across the top of an apron was taken to be more or less the span of three hands. When the skin has been cut out and shaped it is laid on the ground and covered with manure which is left on for about a day. Powdered dry manure is mixed with fresh wet manure for this process (Fig. 19). This is the final step in the preparation, after which the garment is coloured with red ochre. A woman's front apron, ntetho, is always made of goat-skin which is prepared in the same way as the ox-skin, until the cutting process is reached. After the skin has been cut to the correct pattern it still has to be shaped. Before shaping, however, it is decorated in the following way: the prepared skin is moistened where the working is to begin. A household knife is used to incise a design on the skin (Figs 20, 21). This design covers the entire surface of the. Please note that the
Size: 2010px × 1243px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
