POPULATION. 
105 
are more than three*. The hair is shaved so as to 
leave three circular patches : one behind, one in the 
middle, and the other in the front. Most of the Nufi 
men I saw at Egga, wore the tobe : many of them were 
dressed with a cloth, which hung somewhat gracefully 
from one shoulder, after the fashion of the Roman toga. 
They were, in general, tall and well made: the form 
* The Nufi people have a cicatrix under each eye, while the 
Kakandas have three gashes on the cheek ; but even these are not 
invariable. 
The custom of painting the eye-lids of a dark blue colour with 
“ galena” prevails here to a great extent indeed ; it has been generally 
seen especially among the females since we left Eboe (Abbh). This 
fashion is alluded to in Jeremiah, ch. iv. 80th verse, the word eye being 
rendered/ace in the translation. It is also spoken of in 2nd Kings, ix. 30. 
It gives to the eye a calm, soft appearance. The nails are also occa- 
sionally dyed with a leaf called Henna. This is called, in Nufi, 
Laleh; in Arabic, “Hanna.” The galena is generally contained in 
small leathern bottles, with rounded globular bottoms, and long 
narrow necks ; in the stopper of the bottle a long pencil is fixed, with 
which the staining of the eye-lids is performed. Kohol is the Arabic 
name of this dye. In a note appended to Moore’s Lalla Rookh, in 
explanation of “ Kohol’s jetty dye”— “ None of these ladies,” says 
Shaw, “take themselves to be completely dressed till they have 
tinged the hair and edges of their eyelids with the powder of lead 
ore.” Now as this operation is performed first by dipping into the 
powder a small wooden bodkin of the thickness of a quill, and then 
drawing it afterwards through the eyelids over the ball of the eye, wo 
shall have a lively image of what the prophet (Jer. iv. 80) may be 
supposed to mean, “by renting the face with painting.” This prac- 
tice is no doubt of great antiquity; for besides the instance already 
taken notice, we find that when Jezebel is said (2nd Kings, ix. 80) 
to have painted her face, the original words are, she adjusted her eyes 
with the powder of lead. 
