THE PEOPLE. 



231 



though of light brown colour and stoutly made, 

 are plain and short : they chip their teeth to 

 points like saws, cats, or crocodiles, and they 

 brand a circular beauty-spot in the mid-forehead. 

 Their heads are shaven, their feet are bare, and 

 except talismans round the neck, wrist, and ankles, 

 their only wear is a sheet thrown over the 

 shoulders, and a rag or skin tied around the loins. 

 The characteristic grass-kilt of the Bedawin of 

 the plains is unfitted for the highlands. A knife 

 is stuck in the waist-cord, and men walk 

 abroad with pipe, bow, and quiverless arrows 

 tipped with bone or iron. The women are 

 adorned with tahsmans in leather bags, and with 

 massive collars of white beads, now in fashion 

 throughout this region : a ' distinguished person' 

 will carry from 3 to 4 lbs. of these barbaric decor- 

 ations. The feminine body dress is the hideous 

 African sheet bound tightly under the arms and 

 falling over the bosom to the ankles. 



The Wasumbara of both sexes are for Africans 

 industrious, the result of cold climate necessitat- 

 ing comparatively many comforts. The husband 

 and children work in the fields or drive the cattle 

 to graze when the sun has dried up the dew : to- 

 wards evening they fence the animals in the house 

 yard, and stow away the young within the hut. At 



