THE WA-TEITA. 
59 
again wear all their hair with a peculiar top knot, 
which, instead of being round, comes to a point in 
the centre of the forehead. The men wear the usual 
dirty cloth round the loins, and the women a pleated 
petticoat of the same material; they adorn themselves 
with fine iron and copper chains and wind coils of 
thick wire round the upper arm, in some cases tightly 
enough to produce bad sores. Beads of two kinds are 
much affected by both sexes, particularly by the ladies, 
who in some instances wear over a hundred rows 
round their necks. The fashionable and therefore 
favourite beads, when we passed through, were big 
blue and small red ones, but the native taste is 
capricious, and the favourite beads are now probably 
totally different in size and in colour. Brass coils and 
ornaments, including small chains, are worn in the 
ears, and a Wa-teita dandy always rubs his hair over 
with grease and red clay, while the best dressed ladies 
anoint their neck, arms, and breasts with rancid butter. 
The men are very fond of snuff, which they keep in 
little horn snuff-boxes carried round their necks, and 
their weapons consist of bows and arrows, the barbs 
or rather the hafts of the latter being smeared with 
poison, and so constructed as to be easily detached 
from the shaft. These barbs always remain in the 
wound, and produce death in large animals in about 
twenty minutes. They also have straight short swords 
of a spatulate shape, and carry curious little three- 
legged stools, carved out of a solid piece of wood, 
with the tops hollowed out like a plate; these are 
