54 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
threaded with red and white pound-beads, so called by 
Europeans because the lb. fetches a dollar. These deco- 
rations fell upon the breast or back ; the same is done 
to the thin beard, which sprouts tufty from both rami 
of the chin, as in the purely nervous temperament of 
Europe ; and doubtless the mustachios, if the latter 
were not mostly wanting, would be similarly treated. 
Whatever absurdity in hair may be demanded by the 
trichotomists and pliilopogons of Europe, I can at once 
supply it to any extent from Africa — gratis. Gentlemen 
remarkable by a rate, which as in the Scotch terrier 
begins above the eyes and runs down the back, should 
be grateful to me for this sporting offer. 
Nothing simpler than the Fa n toilette. Thongs and 
plaits of goat, wild cat, or leopard skin gird the waist, 
and cloth, which is rare, is supplied by the spoils of the 
black monkey or some other “ beef.” The main part of 
the national costume, and certainly the most remarkable, 
is a fan of palm frond redolent of grease and ruddled 
with ochre, thrust through the waist belt ; while new 
and stiff the upper' half stands bolt upright and depends 
only when old. It suggests the “ Enduap ” (rondache) 
of ostrich-plumes worn by the Tupf-Guaram barbarians 
of the Brazil, the bunchy caudal appendages which made 
the missionaries compare them with pigeons. The fore 
part of the body is here decked with a similar fan, the 
outspread portion worn the wrong way, like that behind. 
The ornaments are seed-beads, green or white, and Lo- 
angos (red porcelain). The “bunch” here contains 100 
to 120 strings, and up country 200, worth one dollar; 
each will weigh from one to three, and a wealthy Fan 
may carry fifteen to forty-five pounds. The seed-bead 
was till lately unknown ; fifteen to twenty strings make 
the “ bunch.” There is not much tattooing amongst the 
men, except on the shoulders, whilst the women prefer 
the stomach ; the gandin, however, disfigures himself 
with powdered cam-wood, mixed with butter-nut, grease, 
or palm-oil — a custom evidently derived from the coast- 
tribes. Each has his “ Ndese,” garters and armlets of 
plaited palm fibre, and tightened by little cross-bars of 
