760 



NILOTIC NEGEOES 



The hair on the head is that of the ordinary 

 negro type, and is fairly abundant, the 

 women being able to grow it in long strings 

 or plaits to the length of nearly twelve 

 inches. Hair is scrupulously removed from 

 all parts of the body. 



When free from Muhammadan influence, 

 nuiie of the Nile races circumcise. Most 

 of them, liowe\'er, knock out the loiuer 

 incisors. This, however, is not generally 

 done by the Bari and Madi, but seems to 

 be practically limited to the many tribes 

 who s^jeak Nilotic languages of the wide- 

 sjjread Dinka-Acholi group. Some of the 

 3Iadi people — a grouj] comprising many 

 tribes — score the cheeks with three or four 

 parallel longitudinal cuts, which give an 

 ugly, scarred appearance to the face ; but 

 this is only done where they have come 

 under Nubian influence as slaves and soldiers. 

 In the Aluru, who are a western branch 

 of the Acholi, a pattern is sometimes made 

 on the lirow by means of raised lumps of 

 skin. As a rule, the Bari, Acholi, and 

 Lango men leave their skins undecorated 

 by cicatrisation. Sometimes, however, the 

 Acholi men raise prominent cicatrices over 

 the temples or cheeks in wavy or zigzag 

 patterns. On the outer side of the thigh 

 and buttocks these raised scars are traced 

 in long scrolls of artistic design. The 

 Bari ivomen raise scars of a herring-bone pattern on the upper arm 

 down from the shoulder to the inner aspect of the elbow. 



In many of the tribes to the east and west of the Nile the loiver lip is 

 pierced, and a piece of polished quartz, sometimes three inches in length, 

 is inserted. The women in some tribes pierce the upper lip, and wear 

 through it a big brass ring, which is hung with beads. Among the ]Madi 

 this is done; or a small disc of wood is inserted in the upper lip, like the 

 •' pelele " of the Babira and Nyasaland natives. Some of the western 

 Acholi tribes have a stone pencil not only through the lower lip, but 

 another one placed in the upper lip. (This custom extends also into the 

 Karamojo country, and examj)les may be seen in Figs. 406 and 408.) Some 



L 

 407 



A LO(,EV\ -VKI (MADl) >EGKO (MIXED 

 E-iCE OB MLE ^EGEO-A^D BV^TU) 



