They Seemed To Think That They Had A Perfect Right
To Payment For Simply Passing Through The Country.
Beyond the Chikapa we crossed the Kamaue, a small deep stream
proceeding from the S.S.W., and flowing into the Chikapa.
On the 30th of April we reached the Loajima, where we had to form a bridge
to effect our passage. This was not so difficult an operation
as some might imagine; for a tree was growing in a horizontal position across
part of the stream, and, there being no want of the tough climbing plants
which admit of being knitted like ropes, Senhor P. soon constructed a bridge.
The Loajima was here about twenty-five yards wide, but very much deeper
than where I had crossed before on the shoulders of Mashauana.
The last rain of this season had fallen on the 28th, and had
suddenly been followed by a great decrease of the temperature.
The people in these parts seemed more slender in form, and their color
a lighter olive, than any we had hitherto met. The mode of dressing
the great masses of woolly hair which lay upon their shoulders, together with
their general features, again reminded me of the ancient Egyptians.
Several were seen with the upward inclination of the outer angles of the eye,
but this was not general. A few of the ladies adopt a curious custom
of attaching the hair to a hoop which encircles the head, giving it somewhat
the appearance of the glory round the head of the Virgin (wood-cut No. 1*).
Some have a small hoop behind that represented in the wood-cut.
Others wear an ornament of woven hair and hide adorned with beads.
The hair of the tails of buffaloes, which are to be found farther east,
is sometimes added. This is represented in No. 2. While others, as in No. 3,
weave their own hair on pieces of hide into the form of buffalo horns;
or, as in No. 4, make a single horn in front. The features given
are frequently met with, but they are by no means universal.
Many tattoo their bodies by inserting some black substance beneath the skin,
which leaves an elevated cicatrix about half an inch long: these are made
in the form of stars, and other figures of no particular beauty.
-
* Unfortunately these wood-cuts can not be represented in this ASCII text.
No. 1 appears like a wheel with spokes of hair connecting it to the head.
No. 2 appears somewhat like a tiara sloped forward, as the bow of a ship.
No. 3 appears like gently curving horns. There is a part in the middle,
and the hair, on leather frames, curls outward and upward at the temples.
No. 4 is likewise, but the single horn curves outward and upward
from the forehead - it is labelled "A Young Man's Fashion".
Except for No. 1, all are represented as having the rest of their hair
hanging in braids around the sides and back.
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