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THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



and habits of the different tribes. Their muscular development is good, and on work which 

 depends only on muscle they excel the average European; but in anything requiring judgment 

 they are easily beaten. The nervous system is not very sensitive, and the appreciation of pain 

 is dull. Operations can be conducted without anassthetics which would be fatal to Europeans 

 even with their aid. Johnston describes a scene after one of the battles in British Central 

 Africa, in which "operations of the most terribly painful character are being carried on, and 

 the patients are smiling, with an occasional wince or grimace, but meantime plaiting grass with 

 their fingers or watching the application of the surgical implements with positive interest." 



Dress varies from absolutely nothing, as in some of the people of Kaviroudo, to the 

 complete clothing of the better-class Suahili. As a rule the dress is very simple: children are 

 usually nude; women mostly have a narrow petticoat, covering from the waist to about the 

 knees; men wear a narrow loin-cloth, which they frequently discard. In cold, wet districts, as 



Photo by Mr. II. E. 



OVA-HERERO WOMEN. 



in the inland plateaux, a short skin cloak is used, which is hung over the shoulders to protect 

 the lungs. The skins worn by the Negroes are untanned, but are rendered soft by scraping 

 and beating. In South Africa the untanned hide of cattle is the principal material used for 

 clothing. In Northern Africa and along the coast skins are replaced by cotton-cloth. Some 

 of the Equatorial tribes make fabrics of plaited grass. Sheets of fig-bark, hammered until they 

 are soft and supple, are used in Uganda and some neighbouring countries. 



The ornaments are as varied as the clothing; they mostly consist of iron and brass rings, 

 worn round the arms or legs, in the ears, nose, or lips. Brass beads hammered from wire 

 and cowry-shells are sewn on the skin garments or on straps; rings of ivory are worn on the 

 muscles of the arm among some tribes, while head-dresses of feathers and fur are common, 

 especially among the warriors. The medicine-man of the tribe is generally fantastically 

 arrayed in assortments of the most eccentric articles available. 



The body is decorated by colour-tattooing and scar-tattooing or cicatrisation. True or 



