FASHION IN DEFORMITY. 



727 



in this respect, I believe, surpasses anything that may be found through- 

 out Africa. Not satisfied with piercing the lower lip, they drag out 

 the upper lip as well for the sake of symmetry.* . . . Circular plates, 

 nearly as large as a crown-piece, made variously of quartz, of ivory, 

 or of horn, are inserted into the lips that have been stretched by the 

 growth of years, and then often bent in a position that is all but hori- 

 zontal ; and when the women want to drink, they have to elevate the 

 upper lip with their fingers, and to pour the draught into their mouth. 

 " Similar in shape is the decoration which is worn by the women 

 of Maganya ; but, though it is round, it is a ring and not a flat plate ; 

 it is called pelele, and has no object but to expand the upper lip. 

 Some of the Mittoo women, especially the Loobah, not content with 



Fig. 4. Loobah Woman. (From Schweinfurth's " Heart of Africa.") 



the circle or the ring, force a cone of polished quartz through the lips 

 as though they had borrowed the idea from the rhinoceros. This 

 fashion of using quartz belemnites of more than two inches long is in 

 some instances adopted by the men." 



The traveler who has been the eye-witness of such customs may 

 well add : " Even among these uncultured children of nature, human 

 pride crops up among the fetters of fashion, which, indeed, are fetters 

 in the worst sense of the word ; for fashion in the distant wilds of 

 Africa tortures and harasses poor humanity as much as in the great 

 prison of civilization." 



It seems, indeed, a strange phenomenon that in such different races, 

 so far removed in locality, customs so singular to our ideas so revolt- 

 ing and unnatural, and certainly so painful and inconvenient should 



* The mutilation of both lips was also observed by Itohlfs among the women of Kadje, 

 in Segseg, between Lake Tchad and the Benwe. 



