SHULI MANNERS. 271 



behind from the girdle, and a covering of cotton threads, about 

 three fingers broad, in front. Girls wear only five or six 

 threads, hanging down in front from the girdle. Iron and 

 brass rings are worn wherever it is possible to put them, and 

 their jingling noise is heard at a distance, announcing the 

 approach of one of the fair sex. The Shuli women are not 

 ugly when young, and really pretty faces are often seen among 

 them, but their reputation is none of the best, and it is said 

 that their husbands are not very sensitive about the vagaries of 

 their better-halves. I have formerly described the sleeping- 

 huts where boys and girls learn Shuli morality. 



In all the villages there are places of assembly for men 

 and women, i.e., sloping benches made of logs, on which they, 

 stretch themselves to smoke and talk ; Burton has already 

 described them. The favourite resorts of young men are high 

 scaffoldings like watchtowers, commanding an extensive out- 

 look. Miniature huts, magic plants for use in hunting and 

 war, trees decked with skulls and bones, are met with every- 

 where. 



The station of Fadibek is surrounded by numerous Shuli 

 hamlets, all neatly enclosed in bamboo fences ; their well-tilled 

 fields extend far around, and through them winds a little khor 

 with such luxuriant vegetation, that for the moment you forget 

 that this is the sparsely wooded Shuli country. Clumps of 

 slender date-palms, half buried in thick underwood, look very 

 graceful. The chief of all the Shuli, Rochama, an old gentle- 

 man who is very proud of his pure Wawitu descent, and with 

 whom I was previously acquainted, sent his son to invite me 

 to visit him, as illness prevented him coming to see me ; so 

 we turned off in the direction of his residence. 



Broad ridges of hills strewn with rocks and boulders, and 

 clothed with open forest, stretched out before us, and numerous 

 hamlets lay scattered over the well-tilled country. A good 

 view was obtained from a high bare dome, Abayo, against 

 which the village Lungudi nestles, and as we had to change 

 porters here, I had time to look round. The bare granite was 

 so steep that I could hardly get a foothold. There must be a 

 splendid view from the top (260 feet above the village) in 

 clear weather, but on this occasion smoke and fog interfered 



