326 FASHION IN DEFORMITY xx 



and their vanity in this respect, I believe, surpasses anything 

 that may be found throughout Africa. Not satisfied with 

 piercing the lower lip, they drag out the upper lip as well for 

 the sake of symmetry. 1 . . . Circular plates, nearly as large 

 as a crown piece, made variously of quartz, of ivory, or of 

 horn, are inserted into the lips that have been stretched by 

 the growth of years, and then often bent in a position that is 

 all but horizontal ; and when the women want to drink they 

 have to elevate the upper lip with their fingers, and to pour 

 the draught into their mouth. 



" Similar in shape is the decoration which is worn by the 

 women of Maganya ; but though it is round, it is a ring and 

 not a flat plate ; it is called ' pelele,' and has no object but to 

 expand the upper lip. Some of the Mittoo women, especially 

 the Loobah, not content with the circle or the ring, force a 

 cone of polished quartz through the lips as though they had 

 borrowed the idea from the rhinoceros. This fashion of 

 using quartz belemnites of more than two inches long is in 

 some instances adopted by the men." 



The traveller who has been the eye-witness of such customs 

 may well add, "Even amongst these uncultured children of 

 nature, human pride crops up amongst the fetters of fashion, 

 which, indeed, are fetters in the worst sense of the word ; for 

 fashion in the distant wilds of Africa tortures and harasses 

 poor humanity as much as in the great prison of civilisation." 



It seems, indeed, a strange phenomenon that in such 

 different races, so far removed in locality, customs so singular 

 to our ideas so revolting and unnatural, and certainly so 

 painful and inconvenient should either have been per- 

 petuated for an enormous lapse of time, if the supposition 

 of a common origin be entertained, or else have developed 

 themselves independently. 



These are, however, only extreme or exaggerated cases of 

 the almost universal custom of making a permanent aperture 

 through the lobe of the ear for the purpose of inserting some 

 adventitious object by way of adornment, or even for utility, as 

 in the man of the island of Mangea, figured in Cook's voyages, 



1 The mutilation of both lips was also observed by Rohlfs among the women 

 of Kadje, in Segseg, between Lake Tsad and the Benwe. 



