NATIVES OF BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 419 
no cloth at hand a small leafy branch or a folded banana leaf. The Wankonde 
women are likewise almost entirely nude, but generally cover the pudenda with 
a tiny beadwork apron, often a piece of very beautiful workmanship and exactly 
resembling the same article worn by Kaffir women. A like degree of nudity 
prevails amongst many of the Awemba, amongst the A-lungu, the Batumbuka 
and the Angoni. Most of the Angoni men, however, adopt the Zulu fashion of 
covering the glans penis with a small wooden case or the outer shell of a fruit. 
The Angoni—especially those who are not of Zulu extraction, but merely of the 
widespread A-nyanja race—usually wear a small piece of leather or a kilt made 
of animals’ tails or of serval-skin, in place of or in addition to any special 
covering of the male organ. The Wa-yao have a strong sense of decency in 
matters of this kind, which is the more curious since they are more given to 
obscenity in their rites, ceremonies and dances than any other tribe. Not only 
is it extremely rare to see any Yao uncovered but both men and women have 
the strongest dislike to exposing their persons even to the inspection of a 
doctor. The Yao men now almost universally wear cloth round their waists 
extending to the knee—this as an ordinary covering, though in time of war or 
when they are out hunting they will tuck the cloth up between their legs in a 
compact way. Before the European introduced cloth, however, or the Yao 
caravans brought back quantities of it from the coast, these people, like most 
others in South Central Africa, wore bark cloth, 1 but except amongst the 
remoter valleys of Yao-land, or amongst the A-nyanja who are far removed 
from Lake Nyasa, or the still more barbarous people of the Lubisa country or 
the banks of the Luapula River, cloth—-chiefly European calico or a native 
towel-like manufacture—is now worn. In Angoniland and on the Nyasa-Tangan- 
yika plateau and in parts of West Nyasaland a good deal of weaving is carried 
on and the native cloth thus made is substantial and somewhat ornamental, 
though its web is many times coarser than the finely woven cotton cloths of 
European civilisation. Formerly skins were much worn as cloaks or coverings 
to keep off the cold, but they too like the bark cloth are fast disappearing. 
The Atonga and many of the A-nyanja people, and all the tribes west of 
Nyasa (with the exception possibly of the A-lunda) have not the Yao regard 
for decency, and, although they can seldom or ever be accused of a deliberate 
intention to expose themselves, the men are relatively indifferent as to whether 
their nakedness is or is not concealed, though the women are modest and careful 
in this respect. The chiefs and men of any importance amongst the Yao, 
especially in the vicinity of Lake Nyasa, often adopt an Arab costume, wearing 
a long kansu , or white shirt nearly down to the heels, a piece of cloth wound 
round the head for a turban, a shawl over the shoulders, and so on. There is a 
great desire amongst the A-nyanja to dress like Europeans if they can afford it. 
The Makololo chiefs, for instance, on the Central and Lower Shire, dress more 
or less in European style except when in the intimacy of their homes. The 
Atonga have a great leaning for European clothes. One of the most remarkable 
specimens of this intelligent race that I have known—Bandawe, alias Maferano,'- 
who has risen to a high position in our native army, who is able to read and 
write, and even, I believe, to play the harmonium, had a passion for accumulating 
suits of European clothes of every description. When serving a planter as 
interpreter some years ago, he asked, as part payment of his wages, for a disused 
dress suit and tall silk hat. These garments he used to don on Sundays to our 
1 They strip the bark off the tree, soak it in water and beat it out with wooden hammers. 
2 His original native name, which means “a mortal conflict.” 
