618 " TLOLO."— IDEA OF FEMALE BEAUTY. 



there also put to death. We saw one dwarf only in Londa, and 

 brands on him showed he had once been a slave ; and there is 

 one dwarf woman at Linyanti. The general absence of deformed 

 persons is partly owing to their destruction in infancy, and partly 

 to the mode of life being a natural one, so far as ventilation 

 and food are concerned. They use but few unwholesome mix- 

 tures as condiments, and, though their undress exposes them to 

 the vicissitudes of the temperature, it does not harbor vomites. 

 It was observed that, when smallpox and measles visited the coun- 

 try, they were most severe on the half-castes who were clothed. 

 In several tribes, a child which is said to " tlola," transgress, 

 is put to death. "Tlolo," or transgression, is ascribed to sev- 

 eral curious cases. A child who cut the upper front teeth be- 

 fore the under was always put to death among the Bakaa, and, 

 I believe, also among the Bakwains. In some tribes, a case of 

 twins renders one of them liable to death ; and an ox, which, 

 while lying in the pen, beats the ground with its tail, is treated 

 in the same way. It is thought to be calling death to visit the 

 tribe. When I was coming through Londa, my men carried a 

 great number of fowls, of a larger breed than any they had at 

 home. If one crowed before midnight, it had been guilty of " tlo- 

 lo," and was killed. The men often carried them sitting on their 

 guns, and, if one began to crow in a forest, the owner would give 

 it a beating, by way of teaching it not to be guilty of crowing at 

 unseasonable hours. 



The women here are in the habit of piercing the upper lip, and 

 gradually enlarging the orifice until they can insert a shell. The 

 lip then appears drawn out beyond the perpendicular of the nose, 

 and gives them a most ungainly aspect. Sekwebu remarked, 

 " These women want to make their mouths like those of ducks ;" 

 and, indeed, it does appear as if they had the idea that female 

 beauty of lip had been attained by the Ornithorhynchus paradox- 

 us alone. This custom prevails throughout the country of the 

 Maravi, and no one could see it without confessing that fashion 

 had never led women to a freak more mad. We had rains now 

 every day, and considerable cloudiness, but the sun often burst 

 through with scorching intensity. All call out against it then, 

 saying, "O the sun! that is rain again." It was worth noticing 

 that my companions never complained of the heat while on the 



