WOMAN'S WILES 243 those of the Fungs and Hamegs, and, indeed, much resenibUng them.

Some Nuers appeared ui the cowdung-tinted tufts described before, others with heads evenly covered with caked ash and urine ; some with the same material moulded to a sharpened horn projecting forward, others with an ostrich or crane feather perched on the back of the head.

The heads of the women were invariably cleanshaven. Those who were married wore a coquettish girdle of narrow palm-leaf string or strips, almost efficient for its purpose, and the unmarried girls, of whom two put in an appearance during the last hours of our stay, were emulative of innocent Eve.

Yet in many respects woman in one part of the world resembles woman in others. In some parts Carlton suppers and diamonds are a moving attraction ; here it was dhurra and beads that produced symptoms of hankering. The youngest of the party, wearing a skewer of beads through her upper lip, 6 inches long, came quietly forward to me, havmg decently smoothed down her grass girdle.

I retreated on her arrival within a couple of yards while she endeavoured to make a sweet face. She smiled—such a smile ! she held her head on one side, with her hand supporting it, to describe how hunger was enfeebling her; she pointed to her mouth, and then to her digestive regions, at which I took fright and incontinently fled.

An aged companion reminded me of Watts's 16—2