NATIVE HAIR-DRESSING 



We waited. The intense cold of the early morning 

 was followed by blazing heat as the sun mounted higher 

 in the heavens. Midday came without a sign of lions 

 and without a word from the Somalis. 



By this time our Masai began to grow restless, and 

 proposed to go down and spear one of the rhino ; but 

 the scheme was vetoed promptly, for spears and men 

 would have suffered in the process. Besides, we were 

 out for lions. 



Shortly after noon we went back to camp, to find 

 that Mahomed had lunch for us. I saw at once the 

 carriers had been making good use of the day off. 

 They had washed their scanty garments and were now 

 busy with hair-cutting. Perhaps the latter phrase is 

 not a good one, for it hardly describes with strict 

 accuracy the performance, which consists really in 

 scraping off the hair with a piece of broken glass or 

 anything else with a sharp edge. As soon as one 

 boy has had his wool removed he disposes of that of 

 the operator. They are, apparently, all professional 

 barbers. The native proper does not cut his hair ; 

 he lets it grow long, makes it into a number of plaits, 

 rubs into it a mixture of grease and red earth, and then 

 thinks he is a dandy. Another process, always carried 

 out when the safari makes a day's halt, is the quest of 

 the jigger, or matakini. Of all the pests of the East 

 Coast it is, I think, the very worst. It is a minute 

 insect, much smaller than our flea, and its mission 



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