Chap. XIX.] LOVE OF ORNAMENTS. 325 



As the face with us is chiefly admired for its beauty, so 

 with savages it is the chief seat of mutilation. In all 

 quarters of the world, the septum, and more rarely the 

 wings of the nose are pierced, with rings, sticks, feathers, 

 and other ornaments, inserted into the holes. The ears 

 are everywhere pierced and similarly ornamented, and 

 with the Botocudos and Lenguas of South America the 

 hole is gradually so much enlarged that the lower edge 

 touches the shoulder. In North and South America and 

 in Africa either the upper or lower lip is pierced; and 

 with the Botocudos the hole in the lower lip is so large 

 that a disk of wood four inches in diameter is placed in it. 

 Mantegazza gives a curious account of the shame felt by a 

 South American native, and of the ridicule which he ex- 

 cited, when he sold his tembeta — the large colored piece 

 of wood which is passed through the hole. In Central 

 Africa the women perforate the lower lip and wear a crys- 

 tal, which, from the movement of the tongue, has "a 

 wriggling motion indescribably ludicrous during conver- 

 sation." The " wife of the chief of Latooka told Sir S. Ba- 

 ker 42 that his wife would be much improved if she would 

 extract her four front teeth from the lower jaw, and wear 

 the long pointed polished crystal in her under lip." Far- 

 ther south with the Makalolo, the upper lip is perforated, 

 and a large metal and bamboo ring, called apelele, is worn 

 in the hole. " This caused, the lip in one case to project 

 two inches beyond the tip of the nose ; and when the lady 

 smiled the contraction of the muscles elevated it over the 

 eyes. 'Why do women wear these things?' the venera-. 

 ble chief, Chinsurdi, was asked. Evidently surprised at 

 such a stupid question, he replied, * For beauty ! They are 

 the only beautiful things women have ; men have beards, 

 women have none. What kind of a person would she be 



a 'The Albert N'yanza,' 1866, vol. i. p. 217. 



