Ten or a dozen men then collect round it with small adzes, which, when sharpened with an iron bodkin, are capable of shaving off the substance of the skin on the fleshy side until it is quite thin; when sufficiently thin, a quantity of brain is smeared over it, and some thick milk.

Then an instrument made of a number of iron spikes tied round a piece of wood, so that the points only project beyond it, is applied to it in a carding fashion, until the fibres of the bulk of it are quite loose.

Milk or butter is applied to it again, and it forms a garment nearly as soft as cloth.
The shields are made of hides partially dried in the sun, and then beaten with hammers until they are stiff and dry.

Two broad belts of a differently-colored skin are sewed into them longitudinally, and sticks inserted to make them rigid and not liable to bend easily.

The shield is a great protection in their way of fighting with spears, but they also trust largely to their agility in springing aside from the coming javelin.