DRESS OF THE WAKIKUYU 



355 



and older men have their hair cut short at a certain stage of 

 growth, whilst young girls leave only a circular cap-like patch 

 of hair on the top of their heads. Both sexes remove all the 

 hair from the body. 



The men, though the temperature is often low, wear no 

 garments but a piece of goat-skin fastened on the right shoulder, 

 and scarcely covering the upper portion of the body, and a 

 heart-shaped bit of leather hanging down the back from a thin 

 string worn round the neck. When it rains this bit of leather 

 is turned up to protect 

 the head. Very often 

 even this scanty ward- 

 robe is found oppres- 

 sive, and the young 

 men especially are 

 fond of rolling up the 

 mantle and wearing 

 it as a girdle. 



The women wear 

 an apron of tanned 

 and dressed kid-skin 

 fastened round the 

 waist, wdiich comes 



down to the thighs ear ornaments of the wakikuyu. 



or knees, whilst in 



cold or rainy weather they supplement it with a second and 

 larger leather garment, falling from the throat to the knees. 



The Wakikuyu load ears, neck, arms, loins, and legs with 

 ornaments, most of them imitations of those worn by the Masai. 

 The rims of the upper portions of the ears are pierced and the 

 lobes distended for the reception of slips of wood, wire, &c. ; 

 on the left arm the men wear bracelets of ivory buffalo-horn or 

 wood, and round their bodies row upon row of dark-blue beads, 



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