Kaross

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A Kaross is a cloak made of sheepskin, or the hide of other animals, with the hair left on. It is properly confined to the coat of skin without sleeves and used to be worn by the Khoikhoi and Bushmen of South Africa. These karosses became replaced by a blanket. Their chiefs wore karosses of the skin of the wild cat, leopard or caracal. The word is also loosely applied to the cloaks of leopard-skin worn by the chiefs and principal men of the Kaffir tribes. Kaross is probably either a genuine Khoikhoi word, or else an adaptation of the Dutch kuras (Portuguese cowra^a), a cuirass. In a vocabulary dated 1673 karos is described as a " corrupt Dutch word."

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.