60 REPORT OF THE HARVARD AFRICAN EXPEDITION 
the Vais still maintain their own devils and their separate forest schools for 
girls and boys known in the Vai language as Sande and Beri respectively. The 
women’s devil is called Femba or Sande-Nyana, the men’s is Beri-Nyana. The 
activities of these bush schools will be discussed later in connection with life in 
the interior of the country. 
The Kpwesis (Kpwessi, Kpelle), who form the largest tribe in Liberia, live 
in the central region of the country, reaching roughly from the St. John to the 
St. Paul River. In some sections they and the tribes related to them extend up 
to the borders of French Guinea and the Ivory Coast. They therefore occupy 
territory to the north of the Bassas and Gibis, and to the east of the Gola tribe. 
To the northwest they pass imperceptibly into the Buzi people or tribe, and into 
the east and northeast they reach the territory of the Jarquellis, the Manos, and 
the Gios. They seem to have been settled for a long time upon Liberian soil 
and to be aboriginal in their characteristics. They have been under the super- 
vision of the Liberian Government for at least fourteen years, and they appar- 
ently have always been comparatively peaceful and industrious. Formerly they 
were said to be the principal purveyors of slaves in Liberia. 
In color they are in general distinctly lighter than the Krus and Bassas, 
often a yellow or golden brown. They are of moderate height, their arms and 
legs are not to any striking extent disproportionately long or short, and they 
are less prognathous than the Krus. In some the facial features are more or less 
refined. The hair on the head of the women is moderately long and worn natu- 
rally, without elaborate coiffure. 
The costume of the women consists of an oblong piece of striped cloth which 
is wrapped round the body just above the hips and below the navel (No. 39). 
The young unmarried women and young girls often wear only a narrow girdle 
of white shells strung on a belt of grass or rattan fiber to which a loin cloth is 
attached. It is the fashion for the women to paint themselves with indigo dye 
in symmetrical straight lines about a quarter of an inch in width. Thus, one 
woman will have a straight line down her forehead, and several parallel lines on 
both cheeks; another will have an oblong pattern on her chest, or lines like 
shoulder straps extending from the waist behind over the shoulders and down to 
the nipples of the breasts; still another will paint lines extending from the sides 
of the neck down the shoulders and arms. In other instances they smear their 
faces and the upper part of the body with white clay resembling pipe clay, which 
is said to be both for adornment and to soften the skin. They do not practice 
tattooing. Both the men and the women practice cicatrization, the women most 
commonly on the loins, but occasionally on the chest and abdomen. They often 
wear silver armlets and anklets, usually made of round bands of silver one-half 
inch in diameter, but occasionally of bands of brass, from one to two inches in 
width. 
The young boys wear no clothing, but the older ones usually have a loin 
cloth. Although on the march the adult men frequently wear only a loin cloth, 
in the villages they may wear short trunks or trousers. In those towns where 
there has been most communication with the coast, both men and women 
