226 CHIEFS & CITIES OF CENTRAL AFRICA 



so that, though one can, by exerting great agiHty, 

 pass through them on one's feet, it is more comfort- 

 able to crawl on hands and knees. As the place 

 is spotlessly clean, there is no drawback to this 

 method. Inside is another wind-screen, close to the 

 doorway, or, more commonly, by the bed, to which 

 it gives privacy as well as shelter. 



There is little to be found in the houses except 

 grass-pots, so closely woven that milk is kept in them 

 as well as grain. When a girl intends to propose 

 she weaves one of these with elaborate patterns, and 

 sends it to the man she wishes to marry. If he 

 accepts it, they are regarded as an engaged couple. 

 In one house there was a tiny pot that seemed too 

 small for possible use. This, we were told, was a 

 milk-bottle for a piccan when it was weaned. It is 

 the custom for the mother to live with her mother 

 until the child is of an age to feed itself, when they 

 return to the father's house. 



The Buduma are a fine people, tall and well-made, 

 and their length of reach is especially remarkable. 

 The women are good-looking, but the men are not, 

 though perhaps it is their habit of shaving the head 

 that makes them so unsightly. 



They wear long robes, often almost dropping off 

 with decay, and each man has an amulet in a little 

 leather case which hangs on his breast. He often 

 wears a single metal ring in the form of a crescent 

 in the left ear ; while the women hang as many rings 

 as is possible in both ears. 



Both sexes wear bracelets of iron or brass ; the 

 latter are of peculiarly fine design, and look as if 

 they were studded with vast nails. Numbers of bead 



