310 RETUEN FROM LAKE BARINGO TO THE COAST 



of Ukambani. They cut away the hair except from the top of. 

 the head, what is left looking like a close-fitting skull cap. 

 Every superfluous hair is removed with the aid of some little 

 pincers worn round the neck. But for the various necklaces, 

 the upper part of the body is left uncovered ; round the waist 

 is worn a girdle made of some fifty or sixty rows of blue 

 beads of the size of a pea, and below this girdle hangs a little 

 apron of gleaming home-made brass and iron beads, the whole 

 forming a striking contrast to the velvet-like chocolate- 

 brown skin, and giving the young girls a most picturesque 

 appearance. 



Older women wear a roughly-dressed kid-skin flung loosely 

 over the left shoulder and fastened at the right side, whilst 

 down their backs hangs a little piece of leather, sticking out 

 like a swallow's tail. 



Small thefts were frequent here, and in the night an attempt 

 was actually made to carry off a big elephant tusk belonging 

 to Jumbe Kimemeta. There were a good many disputes, too, 

 between our men and the natives, and to avoid actual hostilities 

 we thought it best to push on after one day's rest. We had 

 now plenty of food, having bought, amongst other things, seven 

 fat oxen and a good many sheep, goats, and hens. The usual 

 price here for an ox is ten sheep or goats, or twenty rings of 

 brass wire, five schuka of gamti, forty-nine strings of mikufu, 

 and several strings of murtinarok beads, but really almost any- 

 thing passed current amongst the Wakamba. The following 

 was pretty well the order of value set upon ordinary articles 

 of barter : Ivory, including the horns of rhinoceroses and 

 hippopotami, thick brass wire, stuffs (gamti), natron (makate), 

 axes (shoka), thin copper wire (^mikufu), murtinarok and 

 common Masai beads of all colours. Iron is very little 

 sought after, brass being the metal generally used. In the 

 absence of spears, iron is, of course, less needed, and the 



