724 



The National Geographic Magazine 



WOMEN WITH ELONGATED EIPS (PROFlEE) 



as to reach lower than the chin, and left 

 a repulsive aperture under the nose 

 through which one could see the teeth. 

 As the strain of the lip being pulled hurts 

 them considerably, when they removed 

 the disc or plate they generally licked the 

 lip and the nose through this unnatural 

 aperture. 



The Tuareg, found beyond Lake 

 Tchad, had mostly intermarried with 

 "black tribes and were dark-skinned, but 

 those further north, many of whom I 

 saw, had white skins like the Arabs. 

 They were undoubtedly the most attrac- 

 tive and noblest people of the desert in 

 the French Sudan. 



The Tuareg inhabit a quadrilateral 

 country known by European geographers 

 as the central plateau of the Sahara. 



One of the most typical habits of the 

 Tuareg is the wearing of a veil over the 

 face, which has gained them the name of 

 Ahel-el-litham, or "people of the veil," or 

 the Arabic name of Molathemin, "the 

 veiled." This veil is worn at all times 

 by the Tuareg, and they never remove it 

 either to eat or sleep, when at home 

 or on a journey. Only the eyes are visi- 

 ble, the other parts of the face being hid- 

 den by the turban and by the litham. 



Nobody seems to know exactly the origin 

 of this habit, or the reason why it has not 

 only been kept up by the Tuareg, but has 

 been copied by many other tribes in the 

 Niger valley, and all over the desert. 



Some people say that it is because the 

 brigand-like Tuareg do not wish to be 

 recognized by their enemies ; others main- 

 tain that the Tuareg hide the nose and 

 mouth to prevent the fine sand from en- 

 tering their lungs ; others, more scientific, 

 say that it is in order to keep moisture at 

 the entrance of the respiratory organs in 

 a climate where the atmosphere is so ex- 

 tremely dry. Personally, I think that all 

 these theories are inaccurate, and I be- 

 lieve it is nothing more or less than a 

 fashion, as the women of the Tuareg, 

 for instance, never wear a veil at all, and 

 they seem in excellent health. Tuaregs 

 never remove the veil from their faces 

 even to meet friends or relations, and 

 were it done among themselves it would 

 be considered an insult. 



There was absolutely no mystery about 

 Timbuctu, and as soon as one entered the 

 town the observer was forcibly struck 

 by how much overrated this sacred place 

 had been. From an artistic point of view 

 there was not a single building in Tim- 



