This Pigment Is
Made Of A Peculiar Clay, Rich In Oxide Of Iron, Which, When Burnt, Is
Reduced To Powder,
And then formed into lumps like pieces of soap; both
sexes anoint themselves with this ochre, formed into a paste
By the
admixture of grease, giving themselves the appearance of new red bricks.
The only hair upon their persons is a small tuft upon the crown of the
head, in which they stick one or more feathers. The women are generally
free from hair, their heads being shaved. They wear a neat little
lappet, about six inches long, of beads, or of small iron rings, worked
like a coat of mail, in lieu of a fig-leaf, and the usual tail of fine
shreds of leather or twine, spun from indigenous cotton, pendant behind.
Both the lappet and tail are fastened on a belt which is worn round the
loins, like those in the Shir tribe; thus the toilette is completed at
once. It would be highly useful, could they only wag their tails to
whisk off the flies which are torments in this country.
The cattle are very small; the goats and sheep are quite Lilliputian,
but they generally give three at a birth, and thus multiply quickly. The
people of the country were formerly friendly, but the Khartoumers
pillage and murder them at discretion in all directions; thus, in
revenge, they will shoot a poisoned arrow at a stranger unless he is
powerfully escorted. The effect of the poison used for the arrow-heads
is very extraordinary.
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