574 
HAIR-CUTTING. — COLOR OF THE SKIN. 
like a chisse], but with an edge not keener than an ordinary knife. 
These bald lines, which might be compared to a path-way mowed 
through a field of corn, were sometimes single ; and some of these 
fashionable young Africans were observed having the whole of the 
head scraped bald, excepting a small patch on the top. In the figure 
on the left, the lower part of the hair is also scraped away ; but 
instead of those bare lines, the fancy of the wearer led him to 
distinguish himself in a manner which he thought more becoming, 
by allowing a tuft of hair at the back of the head, to grow as long as 
possible. This latter was a fashion followed also by Mattivi, who, in 
addition, covered the top of his head with a profusion of grease and 
sibilo. Some, instead of sibilo, protect their head by a khuru or cap 
either of fur or plain leather ; but as this piece of dress is not com- 
mon, there are very few who are not at all times both bareheaded 
and barefooted. Some of the young men display their taste by 
wearing very large ivory-beads round the ankle. 
Many of the chieftains, and others of that class, when not armed, 
carry a stick about five feet long and of the same size as the shafts 
of their hassagays. This they call a tsdmtna *, which implies a 
' walking-stick,' though it is merely carried in the hand, and never 
used as a support or assistance in walking : from being so much 
accustomed to the hassagay, they take the tsamma probably with no 
other view than to avoid being empty-handed. 
The true color of their skin, which is black though considerably 
lighter than that of the Guinea negro, is so universally disguised by red 
ochre or sibilo, as more fully has been explained on a former occasion 
(page 256.), that a Bachapin in his natural color, is a rare sight. It 
is in the dry season of the year, that they most adorn themselves 
with sibilo, as rain is considered inimical to its beauty ; though in 
reality this substance is used, but in a somewhat less quantity, at all 
seasons. 
Several useful articles are carried about them as constant 
* The word tsamma means also ' to walk ' ' to go away ' or ' to depart.' 
