268 THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 



to signify nothing except the taste of the individual. 

 All other hair on their faces and bodies is most care- 

 fully removed. Brass wire alone seems desired. It is 

 worn moderately, only small collars, armlets, and leg- 

 lets. The unmarried women wear nothing at all. The 

 married women tie on a sort of tail behind made ex- 

 actly like an old-fashioned bell-cord tassel, but very 

 much larger. They occasionally carry also a small white 

 goatskin burned or branded in stripes like a zebra. 

 This probably has some especial significance, for when 

 I tried to buy one I failed at any price. 



"If I sell this I will die," they told me. 



They are a friendly people, and it was a real pleasure 

 occasionally to squat in one of their enclosed villages 

 and jaw with them. Everything was clean and swept, 

 nobody was greased and daubed (though many painted 

 their faces) , and there seemed a lot of spare hilarious good 

 nature. At the very first it was hard not to be a little 

 embarrassed at being surrounded by so many full-grown 

 ladies without a stitch, but they were all so blissfully 

 unconscious of anything out of the way that I ended by 

 becoming so myself ! Those who know these people well 

 tell me that they are the most chaste of all the tribes. 



Influenced by the damseFs information about water, 

 we camped in an old cornfield at the edge of the bar- 

 ranca. There was no shade and no firewood; but we 

 threw our blankets over the tents, and cooked with 

 cornstalks. 



