XII 
THE KAVIRONDOS 
143 
A woman is not entitled to don the tail immediately 
after marriage, but has to wait a month or two; the 
husband then presents her with a goat wherewith to 
purchase it. If a man of the same tribe touch the tail 
he commits a great offence, even if it be the woman’s 
husband. Unless atonement be made by the sacrifice 
of a goat, it is believed that the woman will die of the 
insult. If it be torn off* by an enemy or a stranger no 
harm is done. 
The Kavirondos have'a superstition that if a woman 
wears a cloth round her loins she will have no children. 
J. F. Cunningham, when making a visit to one of their 
villages, found himself surrounded by a batch of naked 
young women. He thought to improve their appearance, 
and gave them some pieces of American sheeting to 
wrap round their loins, and showed them how to do it, 
but the girls threw the stuff away, saying, “ Foreign 
customs ; we don’t want them here.” Cook in his first 
voyage among the South Sea Islands found the natives 
naked. He gave one an old shirt. To the captain’s 
surprise the recipient bound it round his head like a 
turban instead of using it to cover any part of his 
body. 
The Kavirondo women are tattooed on the belly. 
Mr. Hobley states that all Kisumu girls are tattooed j ust 
below the navel. When a woman first becomes 
pregnant more elaborate tattooings are added in front 
as high as the breasts, and a belt of markings is carried 
round the waist. Tattooing is a matter of choice with 
the men. Major Powell-Cotton, when among the 
Turkana and Suk tribes which live in a country adjacent 
to the Kisumu Province, noticed curious little tattoo 
marks on the bodies of the warriors, and it was 
explained to him that they were a tally of the number 
of the people the man had killed. For the first man 
slain a series of lines of little scars is made on the right 
arm by thrusting a needle through the skin and 
