of Edinburgh, Session 1885-86. 
709 
attired completely. Death, is the penalty attached to the neglect 
of this law. In the harems, however, the younger women usually 
dispense with clothing altogether, or at most wear a simple string 
of heads around the waist. The national dress is mbugu, a dark 
cloth made from a species of fig ( see Manufactures). The men 
wear a strip of this material as a loin cloth, and a large flowing robe 
of the same stuff draped like a Roman toga. It passes under the 
left arm and is tied in a large knot over the right shoulder ; the 
arms are free, and a girdle usually of string fastens the garment 
round the waist. The women wear loin cloths too, hut they fasten 
their mbugu dress just under the armpits. Instead of or added to 
this costume the chiefs wear skin clothing, which is made either of 
a whole bullock skin or of two or three goat skins sewn together, 
or of from twenty to forty skins of the bFtalaganya, a diminutive 
antelope about the size of a hare, which has a beautifully glossy 
coat of a rich dark brown colour. Buffalo hide sandals, in shape 
like a boat, are invariably worn by the chiefs, and the lower classes 
usually wear ox skin sandals. 
When going to war the men divest themselves of all their cloth- 
ing save the loin cloth, which on such occasions is usually made of 
hide, and many of them wear feather head-dresses. 
Foreign dress is gradually being introduced, and the chiefs are 
by degrees discarding the mbugu in favour of Arab and Turkish 
costume. Ten years ago members of the Court alone were permitted 
to dress in foreign garb ; but of late years greater freedom has been 
permitted on this point. 
The chiefs, pages, and others at Court wear fantastic head-dresses 
of white or coloured pocket handkerchiefs. Some of the king’s 
bodyguard wear the fez. Away from the capital, if head-dresses are 
worn at all, they are small caps made of plaited grass. Turbans are 
very rarely seen. 
Ornaments . — The men do not as a rule overload themselves with 
ornaments, but they content themselves with one or two wire 
bracelets and a few charms hung round the neck by a small cord 
made out of the tail of a giraffe. The women, however, are far 
more gaily decorated ; necklaces, bracelets, waistbands, and anklets 
of beads being extensively worn. All these articles are very well 
made ; the colours are tastefully arranged, and the shapes are varied 
