_Ornaments_ are worn chiefly by the women in Africa as elsewhere. Beads and bangles are in great request. Many have armlets and anklets of brass or iron. The most striking female ornament is the lip ring. Little girls have first a small hole (lupelele) bored in the upper lip, in this they place a stalk of grass, which prevents the hole from filling up, next they insert a thicker stalk of grass, then by means of bits of twigs, &c., the hole is made larger and larger, till it can receive this ring. Hardly any female is without it. They say it makes them look “pretty”; the bigger the ring, the more they value themselves! At Zomba, a small hole is bored on the side of the nose, and a tack (exactly similar to those large headed tacks or “tackets” used in the sole of a boot), is put in. This tack, _chipini_, is made of lead; some of the ladies used to express much surprise when I showed them that it would write on my book. [Illustration: NATIVE WOMAN WITH BEADS, TATOOS AND LIP-RING.] Occasionally, a woman will wear an enormous wig made of beads. The beads are so manipulated as to present the appearance of having been “threaded” on the hair of the head. Some females do actually thread beads on the separate hairs of their head, but the usual way is to put them on a cluster of strings, and then wear like a wig. Sometimes they allow their hair to grow till it is very long—it may be sticking up about 8 inches above the head—and then it looks exactly like the fleece of a black sheep. But this is unusual, as the natives are obliged, for the sake of cleanliness, to shave their heads often. The men have scarcely any beard or whiskers. On the shaving of the head for a death (40), not even the eyebrows are allowed to escape. There is no end of capricious shaving, for instance, they shave one side only, or the whole head except a patch in the middle. CHARMS (_mbiji_) are very often worn round the neck by both sexes. These are little pieces of wood like what fill the gourds of the Sorcerers (I). They are worn on a small string in the same way as beads. We may mention here that great quantities of beads are worn round the loins in strings as thick as cart ropes. When a person is from home and wishes to buy anything, he falls back upon this portion of his property which is really his “purse”. Besides this, a native carries a bag (msaku), which may contain a box with lime (swakala), which he uses in chewing tobacco: a snuff box is also common. Ladies partake of these “regales” to a less extent. [Illustration: NATIVE KNIVES AND ARROWS.] B.—WEAPONS.