Chap. V. 



PELELE, OR LIP-RING. 



115 



but the wealthier of ivory, or tin. The tin pelele is often made 

 in the form of a small dish. The ivory one is not unlike 

 a napkin-ring. No woman ever appears in public without 



Pelele, or Lip-ring of Manganja Woman. 



the pelele, except in times of mourning for the dead. It 

 is frightfully ugly to see the upper lip projecting two inches 

 beyond the tip of the nose. When an old wearer of a 

 hollow bamboo ring smiles, by the action of the muscles 

 of the cheeks, the ring and lip outside it, are dragged back 

 and thrown above the eyebrows. The nose is seen through 

 the middle of the ring, and the exposed teeth show how 

 carefully they have been chipped to look like those of a 

 cat or crocodile. The pelele of an old lady, Chikanda 

 Kadze, a Chieftainess, about twenty miles north of Mo- 



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