NATIVES OF BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
421 
was a black person dressed in ludicrous caricature of a “masher” in a very tight- 
fitting evening suit and tall hat. The masher, however, was knocked down by 
a spent bullet (fortunately not much hurt) and upon being picked up was found 
to be Bandawe’s wife thus strangely habited. 
Amongst the still untamed savages of Angoniland and elsewhere to the 
north and west of Lake Nyasa many strange additions to their costume are 
worn by the men upon going 
to war. The Angoni gene¬ 
rally tie a piece of red cloth 
round the waist and don a 
huge kilt of animals’ tails or 
of dressed cat skins. On the 
head they will place either a 
circlet made of zebra mane 
or a huge headdress of black¬ 
cock’s feathers. White frills 
are worn round the ankles, 
made of the long white hair 
of the Colobus monkey or, 
failing that, of goat’s hair. 
The fighting men of the 
Awemba or of other tribes 
between Nyasa and Tangan¬ 
yika are fond of wearing as 
a headdress the head and 
beak of a large hornbill. The 
illustration which is given here 
of a “ Ruga-ruga ” illustrates 
this, and it also shows other 
features of the war dress 
mainly derived from the Wan- 
yamwezi people to the north. 
The coils of rope which this 
drawing represents, are theo¬ 
retically intended for binding 
the Ruga-ruga’s captives. In 
the countries west of Lake 
Nyasa and on Tanganyika 
(I believe also in the Makua 
countries to the east) wooden 
masks are more or less 
worn either during certain dances or as part of the war dress. 
Most tribes anoint the hair with oil, generally castor oil, but some use the fat 
of animals. The Awa-bundali, a tribe of the Wankonde group, comb out their 
wool, plait it, weave into it strips of bark and loop these plaits back over the 
ears like “ bandeaux,” tying the plaits at the back of the head. Many tribes 
not only among the Wankonde but of A-nyanja, A-lolo, Ba-bisa, Awemba 
stock, endeavour to lengthen their hair by plaiting into it black thread or the 
hair of animals, or other substances which may appear to lengthen it. The 
Angoni, where they do not adopt the Zulu fashion among the married men 
of wearing a head-ring (made round the head with plastered hair), train their 
A “RUGA-RUGA” 
