WOMEN OF UNYAMUEZI. 
99 
their toes. Men often allow the nail of the small 
finger to grow long. The meeting of two women of 
unequal rank is a pleasing sight ; the inferior sinks on 
her knee, and droops her head, while the other lays a 
hand on her shoulder muttering something. Both re- 
main silent for a moment, but on rising they chat and 
gossip. The curtsy is also observed by them. When 
the wife hears that her husband is about to arrive 
from a journey to the coast, she dresses herself in a 
feathered cap and in the best costume she possesses, 
and proceeds with other women in ordinary dress to 
the sultana's, where they sing and dance at the door. 
These Wezee women do not practise much tattooing, 
merely making three lines on each temple, and per- 
haps a line down the forehead reaching to the bridge 
of the nose ; but some of the Watusi females were 
observed to have their shoulders and breasts very 
handsomely tattooed to imitate lady's point-lace in 
front, and crossed like a pair of braces behind. The 
waists were also marked in the same way. They pre- 
pare their dress of cow-skin to look like thick Irish 
frieze-cloth : a needle teases the leather fibre into this 
appearance, and the turn -over part at the waist is 
made ornamental by strips from the skins of variously- 
coloured cattle. I have understood that some East 
African women live in the forests as much as fifteen 
days before the expected birth of a child, having a hut 
erected for them. This practice was not observed 
here, but the children are as fondly cared for by the 
mothers as in any part of the world, and not an in- 
stance is known of one of them selling her offspring, 
even when tempted to it by famine — they would sooner 
die. The boys practised many manly games as seen in 
