. Annals of the South African Museum = Annale van die Suid-Afrikaanse Museum. Natural history. LOBEDU MATERIAL CULTURE 99 Vyali girls do not wear elaborate costumes at any time during the initiation. During the early stages they wear only short wraps round the hips. Formerly these were made of hard, unworked skins but in the 1938 initiation cotton cloth was substituted (Krige & Krige 1943: 133) and has continued to be used instead of skin. At a later stage the girls wear bandoliers (Fig. 44A) plaited from leta^e grass and, according to Krige & Krige (1943: 136), dancing skirts, dali, w
. Annals of the South African Museum = Annale van die Suid-Afrikaanse Museum. Natural history. LOBEDU MATERIAL CULTURE 99 Vyali girls do not wear elaborate costumes at any time during the initiation. During the early stages they wear only short wraps round the hips. Formerly these were made of hard, unworked skins but in the 1938 initiation cotton cloth was substituted (Krige & Krige 1943: 133) and has continued to be used instead of skin. At a later stage the girls wear bandoliers (Fig. 44A) plaited from leta^e grass and, according to Krige & Krige (1943: 136), dancing skirts, dali, were made of a special kind of reed strung together in pieces about 2,5 cm long; they were used at both the 1938 and 1974 vyali (Krige 1982: 9). An essential aspect of the vyali and vuhwera is the revealing of digoma, mysterious figures or objects unknown before initiation. These have not been seen by the writer but, according to Krige & Krige (1943: 135), in 1938 many of the digdma were masked figures in costumes made of grass, reeds or leaves. These masked figures were connected with mummery or verbal formulae, each with an esoteric meaning. Khiudogane, the Bird of Muhale, is the greatest goma and ruling spirit of the vyali. It appears in the moonhght wearing a strange costume consisting of a conical wooden framework similar to the structure of a hut roof. From this framework, which rests on the shoulders of the crouching wearer, hang long strings of blackened fibre. The fibre of the moga tree {Acacia rehmanniana), which becomes black when soaked in water, was traditionally used but more re- cently this has been replaced by sisal fibre blackened by rubbing with charcoal. The knot by which the strings are attached to the framework is the same as that used to attach the fringes of the initiation skirt to the girdle (Fig. 45). At the pinnacle, thoho, there is a small sphere of wood coated with black resin in which red seeds and a feather are embedded. The Bird is believed to
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booky
