WOMEN OF THE COAST CLANS. 



35 



that life and texture, and the countenance has that 

 vivacity and amiability which belong only to the young, 

 many of the girls have a pretty piquancy, a little minois 

 chiffonne, a coquettishness, a natural grace, and a caress- 

 ing look, which might become by habit exceedingly pre- 

 possessing. In later life, their charms assume that 

 peculiar solidity which is said to characterise the beau- 

 ties of Mullingar, and as a rule they are shockingly 

 ugly. The Castilian proverb says that the English 

 woman should be seen at the window, the French woman 

 on the promenade, and the Spanish woman everywhere ; 

 — the African woman should be seen nowhere, or in the 

 dark. The children mostly appear in the graceful cos- 

 tume of the Belvidere Apollo ; not a few of them have, 

 to the European eye, that amusing prettiness which we 

 admire in pug-pups. 



The mode of life in the Mrima is simple. Men rise 

 early and repair to either the shop, the boat, or the 

 plantation, — more commonly they waste the morning 

 in passing from house to house "ku ainkia," — to salute 

 neighbours. They ignore "manners": they enter 

 abruptly with or without the warning cry of "Hodi! 

 Hocli!" place their spears in the corner, and without in- 

 vitation squat and extend themselves upon the floor till 

 wearied with conversation they take 6i French leave." 

 Life, to the European so real and earnest, is with 

 them a continued scene of drumming, dancing, and 

 drinking, of gossip, squabble, and intrigue. The fa- 

 vourite inebrients are tembu or cocoa toddy, and mvinyo, 

 its distillation, pombe or millet-beer, opium, Bhang, and 

 sometimes foreign stimulants purchased at Zanzibar. 

 Their food is mostly ugali, the thick porridge of boiled 

 millet or maize flour, which represents the " staff of life" 

 in East Africa : they usually feed twice a day, in the 



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