422 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
Hair into long wisps which they tie up with grass or straw. It is the fashion 
amongst some tribes—especially to the south-east of Nyasaland and on the 
Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau—to wear wigs made of plaited thread. Into these 
wigs cowry shells are sometimes threaded. 
The tribes on the south of Tanganyika occasionally make a headdress 
of black goat skin the hair of which hangs down over the forehead, simulating 
the appearance of a long-haired race. Other people, again, manage to attach 
false hair or imitation hair to their own wool and give themselves the appear¬ 
ance of a fine mop of long hair. Bracelets, necklets, anklets, and similar 
ornaments are almost universally worn. Some bracelets are made of elephant’s 
hide ; others of ivory—a section of a tusk being pierced with a hole large 
enough for the passage of the hand; others of plaited grass or of brass 
wire or iron. 
The Angoni men will generally have a string on which a charm is 
carried, some object supposed to preserve the wearer from harm, or to give 
him especial good fortune. Or they may be necklaces of the black seeds of 
the wild banana (Musa ensete) or various other and larger seeds, or sections 
of shells, or animals’ teeth, or the glass beads of commerce. The women 
will frequently wear huge collars which are one mass of beads or long ropes 
of beads often very tastefully formed. A girdle of beads is usually worn 
amongst the women who seldom remove it after it has once been put on. 
Both men and women will wear anklets of much the same material as their 
bracelets. Women are especially fond of thick brass or copper rings round 
the ankles. Some of the wives of the Yao chiefs wear heavy silver anklets 
of Indian manufacture brought from the coast. 
The tribes to the west and north of Lake Nyasa sometimes use sandals 
when on a journey. As a rule, however, the people of these countries go 
about barefooted always, even though the soles of their feet may be terribly 
scorched during journeys in hot weather when the sun at times makes the 
path hot enough to burn the skin. I have sometimes noticed the Yao wearing 
sandals roughly made of a piece of hide. 
As regards adornments of the person which consist in marking or decorating 
the skin :—Not many of the tribes go in for tatooing on the scale to which it 
is developed in the Pacific, though most of them have a tribal mark. In some 
the skin is ornamented with raised weals and lumps made by incisions into 
which some irritating substance (usually charcoal) is rubbed, which causes the 
flesh to heal with a raised bluish cicatrice. To the east of the British Central 
Africa Protectorate amongst the Makua and the Alomwe, hideous scars are 
thus raised on the forehead. These are sometimes of indigo blue and probably 
some other colouring matter than mere charcoal has been inserted. The people 
in the countries between Lake Nyasa and the Luapula—both men and women 
—cover their bodies with cicatrices arranged in various patterns. 
Amongst the Yao tatooing is usually limited to a kind of rosette, or round 
mark on the temples and three or four longitudinal marks on the forehead, 
just above the nasal bone. 
The A-nyanja tatoo on the forehead and they also, especially to the west of 
Lake Nyasa, practise cicatrisation. Ordinary tatooing is done by making 
punctures or cuts in the skin and afterwards rubbing in charcoal. In cicatri¬ 
sation cuts are repeatedly made in the same place until they heal with a 
swollen blob of flesh which remains as a raised lump. If charcoal is rubbed 
into this in the process of healing, these raised lumps are blue in colour. 
