STANLEY POOL TO THE KWA RIVER. 153 
them is their comparatively great development of hair, on 
the head especially, but also at an early age, all over the 
body, although arrived at maturity their persons are quite 
hairless, for, like most negroes, they dislike extremely all 
erowth of hair on the body, and pluck out every hair that 
makes its appearance, scarcely liking even the beard to 
crow. However, en revanche, the hair of the head is 
much encouraged, and really attains to an astonishing 
length, and though crisp and curly, is tortured and 
twisted by its possessors into all sorts of fantastic 
coiffures.. The men wear it usually in horns, either on 
the top of the head, or in a pigtail, or depending on each 
side of their cheek; also in a sort of “chignon.” The 
women sometimes just frizz it up round the head, or 
comb it out smoothly and strain it over pads in a manner 
much resembling a hideous style in vogue with us some 
fifteen years ago; or they will plait it into an infinitude 
of little rat’s tails that, from their stiffness, stand up all 
round the head in a bristling manner. 
A red dye, which is got from the bark of a certain tree, 
probably the “ camwood” * is used to a great extent for 
colouring their nails, and often their bodies and clothes, 
with a warm tinge of red. They also further decorate 
themselves with white, yellow, and black patterns, made 
respectively with calcareous earth, yellow-ochre, and 
burnt wood. There is much diversity in these designs. 
Sometimes they will draw a white line round their eye- 
lids and down the bridge of their noses, with a line of 
yellow straight down the body from the throat to the 
navel, and black patches on the cheek-bones; but the 
variety of patterns and designs is too numerous to cata- 
logue. ‘They also practise largely a curious mode of © 
decoration by cicatrisation, scoring the cheeks with 
parallel lines, and forming eccentric designs, with raised 
weals or lumps of skin all over their bodies. The cloth 
they wear is nearly all of native manufacture (made of 
woven grass), and is largely dyed and tinged with the 
* Baphia nitida. 
