DRESS, 



97 



conceive the high development of destructiveness 

 and adhesiveness, to speak phrenologically, com- 

 bining in the same individual ? And are not the 

 peasantry of Connaught a familiar instance of 

 the phenomenon? Such is the negro's innate 

 destructiveness, that I have rarely seen him 

 drop or break an article without a loud burst of 

 laughter. During fires at Zanzibar he appears 

 like a fiend, waving brands over his head, danc- 

 ing with delight, and spreading the flames, as 

 much from instinct as with the object of plunder. 

 On the other hand, he will lose his senses with 

 grief for the death of near relatives: I have 

 known several men who remained in this state 

 for years. But why enlarge upon what is ap- 

 parent to the most superficial observer's eye ? 



The male dress is a tanned skin or a cotton 

 cloth tied round the waist, strips of hairy cow- 

 hide are bound like garters, or the ' hibas ' of the 

 Bedawin Arabs, below the knee, and ostrich and 

 other feathers are stuck in the tufty poll. The 

 ornaments are earrings of brass or iron wire, and 

 small metal chains : around the neck and 

 shoulders, arms and ankles, hang beads, leather 

 talisman-cases, and ' ghost-chairs ' — the latter 

 usually some article difficult to obtain, for in- 

 stance, a leopard's claw. Those near the seaboard 



VOL. II. 7 



