WOMEN OF SHIR RACE OF ALIAB. 377 
graciously by shaking hands and saying, "Adoto." They 
were the last race that we saw wearing only fringes and 
switch tails of corded fibre. They smoked clay pipes, 
in shape like a reversed cone, with two resting-prongs, 
each holding half a handful of tobacco ; and their long 
stems had mouthpieces of iron, quite fashionable in 
comparison to those seen in Uganda. The young 
men sported a two-feet-long piece of solid Dalbergia 
wood, the shape of a marline-spike, but tapering at 
both ends, and often nicely milled longitudinally. 
There was nothing further to remark about this Shir 
village, but that the cattle were comfortably housed 
under sheds made of the fronds from the doom palm 
— a tree we had not seen since leaving the Zanzibar 
coast. 
The next race we came among were the Aliab, 
known at once by their women being partially dressed. 
Here they slung a goatskin over the shoulder, like the 
Wanyamuezi, to hide their chests, and two other skins 
were tied round their waists, depending in front and 
behind. We were told, however, that only married 
women were allowed to wear all this clothing. The 
men were also distinguishable by a tuft of wool on 
the crown of their heads, a circle of very white mud 
plastered round it, and their faces and bodies covered 
with ashes. They did not seem at all afraid of us, for 
they assisted in pushing off our boat. Their diet is 
said to be almost entirely a milk one, and they have 
numerous herds. We put in to the left bank at the set- 
tlement of Shenooda, a Khartoom merchant, and found 
the latitude to be 6° 5' 9" N. Another station, where 
there were forty men and a boat, was low and un- 
healthy, the musquitoes at night being in myriads. 
