246 



ACROSS AFRICA. 



[Chap. 



June, 



1874. 



and copper rings. Between the clay patches the scalp was 

 shaven perfectly bare. 



The women, who were prevented by the men from crowd- 

 ing round us on our arrival, had better figures and were better- 

 looking — with the exception of a hanging lower lijD — than any 

 I had seen for some time. In many instances their hair was 

 worked into the shape of an old-fashioned bonnet, deeply shad- 

 ing the face, while long ringlets flowed down their backs ; but 

 some, despising the bonnet, or more confident of their charms, 

 drew their hair off their foreheads and tied it together at the 

 nape of the neck, letting it fall behind in tresses. 



HEADS OF MEN OF MANYUiSMA. 



Their dress was particularlj^ simple ; it consisted only of a 

 cord round the waist — on which beads were strung by the richer 

 ones — and two small grass-cloth aprons. The front one was 

 about the size of a half-sheet of ordinary note-paper, and that 

 behind just a trifle larger. Notwithstanding their small di- 

 mensions, these aprons were often elal)orately stitched and or- 

 namented witli beads and cowries ; and when the M'omen went 

 working in the fields or fishing in the streams, they took off 

 these gay clothes for fear of spoiling them, and replaced them 

 with a small bunch of leaves. 



The goats and sheep, as well as the people, differed from those 



