THE WAGOGO. 



305 



with ghee, the pride of rank and beauty. The Wagogo 

 are not an uncomely race : some of the younger women 

 might even lay claim to prettiness. The upper part of 

 the face is often fine, but the lips are ever thick, and 

 the mouth coarse ; similarly the body is well formed to 

 the haunches, but the lean calf is placed peculiarly 

 high up the leg. The expression of the countenance, 

 even in the women, is wild and angry ; and the round 

 eyes are often reddened and bleared by drink. The 

 voice is strong, strident, and commanding. 



Their superiority of clothing gives the Wagogo, when 

 compared with the Wasagara or the Wanyamwezi, an 

 aspect of civilisation ; a skin garment is here as rare as 

 a cotton farther west. Even the children are generally 

 clad. The attire of the men is usually some Arab 

 check or dyed Indian cotton : many also wear sandals 

 of single hide. Married women are clothed in " cloths 

 with names," when wealthy, and in domestics when poor. 

 The dress of the maidens under puberty is the languti 

 of Hindostan, a kind of T-bandage, with the front ends 

 depending to the knees ; it is supported by a single or 

 double string of the large blue glass-beads called Sun- 

 gomaji. A piece of coarse cotton cloth two yards long, 

 and a few inches broad, is fastened to the girdle 

 behind, and passing under the fork, is drawn tightly 

 through the waistbelt in front ; from the zone the lap- 

 pet hangs mid-down to the shins, and when the wearer 

 is in rapid motion it has a most peculiar appear- 

 ance. The ornaments of both sexes are kitindi, and 

 bracelets and anklets of thick iron and brass- wires, 

 necklaces of brass chains, disks and armlets of fine 

 ivory, the principal source of their w T ealth, and bands 

 of hide-strip with long hair, bound round the wrists, 

 above the elbows, and below the knees : they value 



vol. i. x 



