334 PECULIAR MARKS OF THE TRIBE. 
strange custom with a handful of burning grass. She 
passed it three times round her body from hand to 
hand, while she walked to the left of her doorway. 
The grass was re-lit for her, and the same operation 
was gone through as she walked in front and again 
to the left of her door. The whole was performed 
with perfect solemnity until she saw herself observed, 
when she returned our smile. This ceremony was 
connected with the birth of her child. The women 
of the Bari race cut three horizontal lines on the 
cheeks of their children, and a black oily paste is 
rubbed into the incisions, which are kept open, looking 
raw and inflamed for ten days. I watched the opera- 
tion upon an intelligent child of two or three years of 
age. Three deep scars were cut on its plump cheeks ; 
fever seemed to ensue, as the little thing lost its 
wonted playfulness and its amusing imitation of the 
mother in her household duties. Ultimately these 
marks become lines of raised skin, and are cut in 
different parts of the body according to the race or 
district. Some have them in horizonal lines on the 
top of the arm-sockets ; others have half-circles on 
the buttocks ; and a very common mark seen at 
Faloro amongst the natives, was having the temples 
disfigured by barb-like cuts pointing to the eyes. 
The people of Madi, to whom the village of Faloro 
belongs, did not seem happy under the yoke of the 
Turks. Their head men only showed contentment 
when presented with Arab gowns, pyjamas, &c, and 
they walked about the villages with canes or whips of 
buffalo-hide, like the Turks. However, they had their 
enjoyments of dancing and drinking. Their most 
pleasing performance was when a band of young 
