NATIVES OF BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 423 
The Wankonde tatoo extensively about the age of puberty. They make 
small incisions with a pair of pincers and a knife and rub in wood ashes or 
charcoal. The Wankonde cut marks like those given in the accompanying 
illustration over the breast, above the 
mammae, in both sexes. Some tatoo 
over the abdomen, others over the 
hypogastrium, where they make a series 
of long lines, which are wonderfully 
straight. 
The Awemba make large St. 
Andrew’s crosses on the back, reaching 
from the top of the blade-bone on either 
side to the point of the hip on the 
opposite side. As a rule, both sexes are 
tatooed, and the tatoo marks certainly 
serve both among the A-nyanja, the 
Wa-yao, and the Wankonde to dis¬ 
tinguish tribe from tribe. 
The Angoni and some of the A-lungu 
and Awemba puncture the lobe of the 
ear and insert a quill. The quill is 
presently changed for a thicker wad of 
bone until at last the hole has been so 
far widened as to admit an article the 
size of an ordinary cotton reel, and the 
ear often hangs down a considerable distance, though this deformity is not 
pushed to the extremes I have observed in parts of East Africa. Many of 
the Yao women insert a small piece of 
bone, or ivory, or metal through the wing 
of the nose. Probably this custom has 
been borrowed from the coast. In the 
wives of big chiefs under Muhammadan 
influence a little silver ornament replaces 
the ordinary wad which is thrust through 
the outside of one nostril. The most 
hideous deformity of all is the celebrated 
pelele. This is a round, hollow disc of 
2 wood, or bone, or metal, which is worn 
in the upper lip. The upper lip is pierced 
first of all, and the aperture is gradually 
widened, first by the insertion of a quill 
or a long, round acacia thorn (with the 
point removed) or a grass-stem ; then of 
some article of greater size, such as a ring 
of bone or stone or wood, and so on until 
the pelele, a ring one inch to one inch 
and a half in diameter, can be thrust into 
this hole in the upper lip. Nothing could 
be more ugly. The pelele makes the 
woman’s lip project until it looks like a 
duck’s bill. It must incommode her very 
SPECIMENS OF TATOOING 
i, 2. Lines drawn on the breast and stomach of the 
Wankonde. 
3. St. Andrew’s Cross, drawn across the back by 
the Awemba. 
