Taveta. 
357 
would not disgrace an Arab, proud as the Arabs are 
of their personal appearance. Still I do not think 
them equal to the Gallas. 
In dress and ornaments the Wataveta follow the 
Kikuavi fashions. The men wear a small calf's skin 
fastened over the right shoulder, but sometimes a 
piece of cloth takes the place of the skin. Both are 
worn without the least regard to decency. Young 
men ornament themselves profusely, far more so than 
the Wanika and the Wataita. They shave their heads 
in front, twist their wool into strings sometimes six 
and eight inches long, so as to hang far down upon their 
shoulders, over their foreheads and even their eyes, like 
whipcords ; and they seem to regard this as one of 
the greatest adornments they have. To some of the 
locks they attach small ornaments, cut out of bone and 
ivory into all manner of shapes — round, oval, triangular, 
square, etc. — often notched round the edges like the 
wheels of a clock, perforated with holes, and carved and 
marked in many other ways. The lobes of their ears are 
pierced and stretched to an incredible extent, forming 
a band large enough to encircle an object from two to 
three inches in diameter. Disks and balls of wood, tubes, 
cones, funnels, cylinders, quadrant and sextant shaped 
articles — strips of leather so formed, ornamented with 
beads and hung with long pendent chains — are only 
a few of the great variety of ornaments by which 
these gentlemen try to set off their auricular appen- 
dages. I quite believe in the possibility of having one's 
ears pulled as long as a donkey's, after seeing the de- 
velopment which has taken place in the ears of these 
people. Around their necks they wear necklaces of 
large beads of native and foreign manufacture, which, 
