head to foot with red clay and grease; in this they
are imitated by the women and girls. The men wear
a waist-cloth, and the women clothe themselves from
waist to knee with skins, to which a liberal coating of
clay and grease is applied. All the girls wear their
hair dressed into curious little balls, about the size of
an ordinary marble. This effect is produced by gathering
their wool into separate tufts, and then plastering
each knob with clay and grease. Some of the
women had veils made of iron chain covering the face
from the roots of the hair to just above the eyes.
The effect produced was pleasing. In all, there were
about 250 men and women engaged in the dance.
The air was filled with sound, dust, and the odour of
the many perspiring bodies; but one’s senses become
blunted after a stay in Africa, and the unpleasantness
passes unnoticed, if there is the least evidence of happiness
or pleasure on the faces of the simple savages.
Dancing is a serious business among the Daitcho:
I rarely saw a man even smile; a woman, never. All
round the dancers were gathered groups of old men
and women, perhaps parents of the participants in
the dance. Some small children were holding a little
impromptu ball of their own near at hand. Occasionally
the old women, whose recollections of past joys
in the dance kept them young, would give vent to
their pleasant feelings and thoughts by a shrill trill.
On the whole, the affair was pleasant to view, and
one could not but feel cheered at the sight of so
many harmless beings thus enjoying themselves.
The day following the dance rumours reached me
that a party of Rendile were present among the Embe,