a gentle, ladylike curtsy, ask me to accept i t ; refusal
would have been boorish. Her old eyes were getting
dim, and on her hearing that I had made up some
wash (from filings of zinc), thinking in her ignorance
it might have a virtue for impaired vision, she begged
for a little. On our getting to Cairo, some beads and
trinkets were sent her ladyship vid Zanzibar, which it
is to be hoped have ere this reached her.
The women, through my servants, soon found out
that I had a looking-glass. They took it into their
hands, and held it there, continually looking at themselves,
but it was evident they were not altogether
satisfied with their appearance. They busied themselves
with field operations, even using the flail, and at
night a band of them would meet to dance in the moonlight.
Their manner was to twist their bodies, stamp,
and sing, till, exhausted by their antics, they paused to
breathe and laugh. Two quarrelled one day, and came
at last to blows, striking out like men, and drawing
blood, but they were separated by our Seedees. They
are very masculine in several respects; two of them accompanied
me as volunteer porters when going to join
Speke, and were even more inveterate smokers than
the men. Their entire dress was one cloth wrapped
round the loins from below the breasts to the calf of
the leg, below which, down to the ankle, were immense
masses of brass or iron wire rings, as before described.
The head wool, dressed with an oily preparation, looked
as if they wore a scalp of shining black beetles, among
which were interspersed hawthorn-berry-coloured beads
or rings of brass; others wore their hair in tassels, with
seed-charms, &c. Necklaces of beads, brown or rose-
coloured, adorned their necks; they had no rings on
their toes. Men often allow the nail of the small
finger to grow long. The meeting of two women of
unequal rank is a pleasing sight; the inferior sinks on
her knee, and droops her head, while the other lays a
hand on her shoulder muttering something. Both remain
silent for a moment, but on rising they chat and
gossip. The curtsy is also observed by them. When
the wdfe hears that her husband is about to arrive
from a journey to the coast, she dresses herself in a
feathered cap and in the best costume she possesses,
and proceeds with other women in ordinary dress to
the sultana’s, where they sing, and dance at the door.
These Wezee women do not practise much tattooing,
merely making three lines on each temple, and perhaps
a line down the forehead reaching to the bridge
of the nose; but some of the Watusi females were
observed to have their shoulders and breasts very
handsomely tattooed to imitate lady’s point-lace in
front, and crossed like a pair of braces behind. The
waists were also marked in the same way. They prepare
their dress of cow-skin to look like thick Irish
frieze-cloth : a needle teases the leather fibre into this
appearance, and the turn-over part at the waist is
made ornamental by strips from the skins of variously-
coloured cattle. I have understood that some East
African women live in the forests as much as fifteen
days before the expected birth of a child, having a hut
erected for them. This practice was not observed
here, but the children are as fondly cared for by the
mothers as in any part of the world, and not an instance
is known of one of them selling her offspring,
even when tempted to it by famine—they would sooner
die. The boys practised many manly games as seen in