124 



EASTERN ETHIOPIA 



like cord of tissue capable of surrounding a cylin- 

 drical jar, or a disc of wood, with a diameter of 

 three or four inches, that these deformed eai's are 

 regarded Ijy their owners with pride and their 

 neighl)ours with envy. This is the case. To Ijreak 

 one of these rings of tissue is a great offence. In 

 all countries, civilised and uncivilised, rival beauties 



The Ijiii ut I Kikiiju nitin %Mtli i liiig in tho lobu 

 .ind xeeds in the helix. 



are liable to (juarrel and even light desperately ; in 

 such encounters each combatant endeavours to ruin the 

 beauty of her rival. Scratching furrows in the cheeks 

 is a common form of revenge. Shakespeare, in his 

 description of the scene in which Margaret, Queen to 

 Henry VI., boxes the ears of Eleanor Cobham, Duchess 

 of Gloucester, makes the angry duchess shriek : 



