Liberia 



<«- 



tribes, are generally nude from the shoulders to the waist. 

 From this point cloths ot great breadth and length are wound 

 several times round the body, perhaps tightly girdled round 

 a high waist by a string, and then pulled up and over the 

 girdle in additional folds or loops. A loose cloth — very often 

 a piece ot rich-coloured velvet — is thrown over the shoulders 

 at times. Round the head is bound bright-coloured cloth 

 something like a turban. The Vai women wear most artistic 

 silver ornaments in this coiffure. It is very seldom, however, 

 amongst these Muhammadan women, that anything is worn 

 on the feet. They have bracelets, anklets, and rings, and 

 necklaces of beads as amongst the naked Kru women. 



With regard to artificial adornments or mutilations of the 

 body, the Mandingo — at least the men of that nation — seldom 

 practise tattooing^ or the much more hideous cicatrisation? 

 Some of the Mandingo women, however, practise tattooing, 

 either because they are conservative or because they like to 

 imitate tribes amongst whom they dwell. 



The Vai men do not usually tattoo or cicatrise nowadays,^ 



' Binger, howevei, reports that tlie Maude of Kong and the Niger Basin north 

 of Liberia incise their cheeks from temple to corners of mouth on either side 

 with three deep lines: adding sometimes a cross or a |t to the middle of the 

 forehead. 



^ Cicatrisation, which means the cutting of deep incisions or tlie raising 

 of blobs or scars on the skin, prevails through a great deal of Negro Africa, 

 from the Guinea Coast to the Benue River, the Egyptian Sudan, the interior regions 

 of the Congo Basin, the shores of the Great Lakes, the Portuguese province of 

 Mofambique, and some countries to the north of the Zambezi. It was jirobably 

 a much earlier practice than tattooing. Tins last in all likelihood has been in- 

 troduced by the Caucasian from the north, whereas cicatrisation may have 

 originated amongst the Negroes. The process begins by slashing the skin with 

 a knife, spear-head, or razor ; and where a raised scar or " blob " is wanted the 

 acid juice of some fruit or herb is dropped into the wound and raises a prominent 

 cicatrice. 



* Biittikofer asserts that they did— as late as twenty years ago — and that 

 the body marks made on the Vai men were a double row of small cicatrices down 

 the back, e.xtending from the nape of the neck to the end of the spine. 



970 



