THE NILOTIC NEGROES 



359 



men wear nothing but a few ornaments, of 

 which the most conspicuous is a split canine 

 tooth of a hippopotamus tied across the 

 forehead; the women wear two small fringes 

 of fibre hanging from the waist. As is so 

 often the case with African tribes, morality 

 accompanies nudity. " The people," says 

 Hobley, "are very moral in their domestic 

 relations," and they are remarkably honest. 

 The women's ornaments are necklets, armlets, 

 and anklets of iron wire and beads, brass wire 

 being restricted to the chiefs. 



The weapons are a thrusting-spear, a 

 small throwing-speai-, a large round or oval 

 shield of untanned hide, and a two-edged 

 sword, wider near the end; bows and arrows 

 are comparatively rare. 



The main industries of the people are 

 cattle-breeding and agriculture. Millet and 

 eleusine are the two chief cereals. The tribes 

 grow beans arid castor-oil seeds, and in some 

 places bananas. Tobacco and hemp are grown 

 for smoking. Iron- working is practised by 

 some tribes, who make iron hoes, which, in 

 addition to their intrinsic use, serve as a 

 currency. A cow is usually worth twenty 

 hoes. Pottery, basket-weaving, and the prepa- 

 ration of mats from papyrus stalks are the 

 other chief handicrafts. 



After a child is born the medicine-man 

 is called in with his drum to ensure its 

 good luck, probably by frightening away evil 

 spirits. Four or six days after birth the 

 former in the case of a girl, and the latter 

 for a boy the baby is carried from the 

 village by its mother and left on the road outside. The child is then picked up and restored 

 to its mother by another woman, who thereafter acts as its god-mother. This custom is 

 probably a survival from a period when infant exposure was practised; the rite is adopted 

 earlier in the case of girls, as they were probably the earliest to be abandoned. The birth 

 of twins is welcomed and celebrated by great dances. One of the Bantu tribes, the Wakisesa, 

 circumcise, but otherwise this rite is not practised. Some of the front teeth are extracted as 

 soon as a child can speak. 



Marriage is by purchase, and half the price of the bride is returned by the father-in-law, 

 should she die young. Polygamy is general, and each wife has a separate hut and plantation. 



Burial customs vary greatly: the Bantu tribe of Ketosh simply throw the body into the 

 bush; whereas the people round the station at Mumia's bury the dead in a sitting position 

 below the floor of the hut, with the head above-ground and covered by an earthenware pot. 

 The grave is watched day and night for a month. After some years the grave is opened, the 

 bones are ceremoniously washed, and then reburied on the borders of Ketosh, whence the clan 

 is supposed to have come. 



Among the people of Kabras, according to Hobley, peace is ratified by the sacrifice of a 

 dog, which is tied to a post; each end of the animal is held by one of the two parties to 



Photo by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 



THE START OF A CARAVAN. 



