126 Wanderings in Eastern Africa, 
below his knees, and the same kind of thing above 
his elbows ; many brass and iron ornaments upon both 
arms and legs ; a heap of brass and iron chain about 
his neck; the whole of his head shaven, except a 
thick tuft about the crown ; that tuft twisted into 
long dangling locks, dripping with a mixture of 
grease and red earth ; his eyebrows shaved off, his 
eyelashes picked out, his beard ditto ; and his whole 
person anointed from head to foot with oil, so as to 
make him shine again. There you have the young 
Mnika, got up for the dance, the embodiment 
of self-complaisance, and the admiration of his 
friends. 
The female dress is a small skirt reaching from the 
hips to the knees, with sometimes a loose cloth around 
her shoulders. About her neck is a heap of party- 
coloured beads, some ten pounds in weight ; her 
waist is encircled with about double the quantity of 
the same ; her legs and arms are encased in concentric 
rings of brass and iron wire, as thick as an ordinary 
lead pencil, reaching from the ancle to the knee, and 
on the arm from the wrist to the elbow ; the same kind 
of ornaments adorn her upper arms ; loops of beads, 
chain, and other ornaments dangle from the lobes 
and upper rims of her ears ; her eyebrows and eye- 
lashes too are gone, and the whole of her head is 
shaven bare. Sometirnes, however, for a change, the 
fore part of her head only, as far back as the ears, is 
shaven, the rest of the wool being allowed to grow, 
then twisted into locks similar to those of the young 
men, and likewise plentifully supplied with grease. 
In other cases the whole woolly crop is cultivated, 
and when of sufficient length is twisted into fine cords ; 
