Taveta. 
359 
within the band, but are allowed to hang dangling 
down on the shoulders, generally supported, to relieve 
the ears, by a cord passed through them and drawn 
over the head ; otherwise the weight would break the 
lobes. 
On their necks they wear large collars of iron wire, 
running all the way up the neck, and extending fronl 
the bottom, like a Chinese parachute, over the shoul- 
ders. An Elizabethan ruff was nothing compared to 
this. They wear also other smaller collars of brass 
and iron, often accompanied with a large quantity of 
Various kinds of beads. The fore and upper arms ar^ 
cased in long coils of brass and iron, often so com- 
pletely that nothing is left exposed biit the elbow. 
The legs are similarly ornamented ; the toes are not 
forgotten ; and aM the fingers are heavily jewelled : 
altogether reminding one of a coat of armour. The 
weight of this bijouterie wears off the skin, and the 
poisonous brass creates very serious wounds, which, 
when healed, leave the flesh scarred and knotted for 
ever. 
All the people of Taveta are wofully afraid of 
water ; they evidently never wash themselves, and are 
consequently unspeakably, filthy. 
Their occupations are of the simplest kind, and, 
like those of the Wataita, are half pastoral and half 
agricultural. The cattle are not led out to graze, 
but are stall-fed, the stems and leaves of the plan- 
tain forming their principal food. So fed they require 
little or no water. Both the tillage and the cattle- 
feeding fall to the lot of the women. 
The young men, in imitation of the Masai, are the 
soldiers ; but they are not a very martial set ; for 
