tions, but that the Portuguese planters would not engage them
in an unclothed state. ^ "f . .
You must not, however/imagine that the Bubi is neg
of his personal appearance. In his way he is quite a dandy.
But his idea of decoration goes in the direction of a plaster
“ tola ” pomatum over his body, and above all a hat. is a
may be an antique European one, or a bound-round an er
chief, but it is more frequently a confection of native manufacture,
and great taste and variety is displayed m its ma e.
They are of plaited palm leaf— that’s all you can sale y
generalise regarding them— for sometimes they ave r° a
brims, sometimes narrow, sometimes no brims at all. bo oo
with the crown. Sometimes it is thick and domed, sometimes
non-existent, the wearer’s hair aglow with red-tail parrots
feathers sticking up where the crown should be. As a general
rule these hats are much adorned with oddments of bir
plumes, and one chief I knew had quite a Regent-street Dolly
Varden creation which he used to affix to his wool m a most
intelligent way with bonnet-pins made of wood. These hats
are also a peculiarity of the Bubi, for none of the main-
landers care a row of pins for hats, except “ for dandy,
to wear occasionally, whereas the Bubi wears his perpetual y,
although he has by no means the same amount of sun to
guard against owing to the glorious forests of his island
am told there is a certain sound reason m his devotion
for his hat, and that is that it acts as a protection against a
beautiful but poisonous green tree snake that abounds on
Fernando Po, whose habit it is to hang, upside down, from
the trees. I f the snake strikes the hat instead of the head
when the wearer is out hunting, why so much the better or
the wearer. .
For earrings the Bubi wears pieces of wood stuck through
the lobe of the ear, and although this is not a decorative habit
still it is less undecorative than that of certain mainland
friends of mine in this region, who wear large and necessarily
dripping lumps of fat in their ears and m their hair. His
neck is hung round with jujus on -strings— bits of the bac -
bones of pythons, teeth, feathers, and antelope horns and
round his upper arm are bracelets, preferably made of ivory
got from the mainland, for celluloid bracelets carefully imported
for his benefit he refuses to look at. Often also these bracelets
are made of beads, or a circlet of leaves, and when on
the war-path an armlet of twisted grass is always worn by the
men. Men and women alike wear armlets, and in the case of
the women they seem to be put on when young, for you see
puffs of flesh growing out from between them. They are also
not entirely for decoration, serving commonly as pockets, for
under them in the case of men is stuck a knife, and in the
case of women a tobacco pipe, a well-coloured clay. Leglets
of similar construction are worn just under the knee on the
right leg, while around the body you see belts of tshibbu, small
pieces cut from Achatectonia shells, which form the native
currency of the island. These shells are also made into veils
worn by the women at their wedding.
This native coinage-equivalent is very interesting, for such
things are exceedingly rare in West Africa. The only other
instance I personally know of a tribe in this part of the world
using a native-made coin is that of the Fans, who use little
bundles of imitation axe-heads. Dr. Oscar Baumann, who
knows more than any one else about these Bubis, thinks, I
believe, that these bits of Achatectonia. shells may have been
introduced by the runaway Angola slaves in the old days, who
used to fly from their Portuguese owners on San Thomé to the
Spaniards on Fernando Po. The villages of the Bubis are in
the forest in the interior of the island, and they are fairly wide
apart. They are not a sea-beach folk, although each village
has its beach, which merely means the place to which it brings
its trade, these beaches being usually the dwelling places of
the so-called Portos,1 negroes, who act as middle-men between
fthe Bubis and the whites.
[ YouuWÜI often be told that the Bubis are singularly bad
Ihouse-builders, indeed that they make no definite houses at
in ÍS¿he BubÍ name f° r black men who are not Bubis, these were
“ Portncrnf ° r‘UgUese slaves> “ Porto” being- evidently á corruption of
ILeonianA56’ r IS USed allke by the Bubi t0 designate Sierra
white men MaS’^n ’ ^ tbe ° Uter barbarian blacks- The name for
'Effik n ’ f ara’ used by the Bub,s> has a s°rt of resemblance to the
whether the* °* es’_ Idakara> f 4 the ruIink onG but I do not know
■P hese two words have any connection.