It was highly fashionable in Obbo for the men
to wear such tufts, formed of the bushy ends of cow's-tails. It was also
"the thing" to wear six or eight polished rings of iron, fastened so
tightly round the throat as to almost choke the wearer, somewhat
resembling dog-collars.
On 18th July, the natives held a great consultation, and ended with a
war-dance; they were all painted in various patterns, with red ochre and
white pipe-clay; their heads adorned with very tasteful ornaments of
cowrie-shells, surmounted by plumes of ostrich-feathers, which drooped
over the back of the neck. After the dance, the old chief addressed them
in a long and vehement speech; he was followed by several other
speakers, all of whom were remarkably fluent, and the resolution of the
meeting was declared "that the nogaras were to be beaten, and men
collected to accompany the Turks on a razzia in the Madi country."
Ibrahim started with 120 armed men and a mass of Obbo people on the
marauding expedition.
On the following day Katchiba came to see us, bringing a present of
flour. I gave him a tin plate, a wooden spoon, the last of the tea-cups,
and a tinsel paper of mother-of-pearl shirt buttons, which took his
fancy so immensely, that my wife was begged to suspend it from his neck
like a medal.
