They wear only a single tuft of hair: it is sometimes long, and sometimes short, so that they may shew the distinguishing mark of their race—the incisions running from the forehead in three strokes around the head. Yet there were some who wore their entire hair, which is no more to be called woolly than that of the Arabs in the land of Sudàn. Every one had adorned his head according to his own taste. Many were bedecked with a short ostrich-feather, others with a thong of pelt, or with a wooden ring, and one was covered all over with small burrs. This was that dreadful little burr that used to stick to our stockings and wide Turkish trowsers in Taka, and drew together the latter into the most singular folds. Its hook-formed point or prickle was only extracted from linen with the greatest trouble. Another wore a felt cap upon which was a tassel, as if he had taken a Turkish cap for his model. Tattooing is called by these Keks _garo-ungè_: they wear slips of leather round their necks, hands, and also frequently round the hips, and rings of ivory and iron, varying in number, round the arm. If we ask them whence the iron comes, they answer, “From the mountain,” and point to the south. The iron rings are of various forms, furnished at the joints with small bells—that is, with a small hole, in which grains are placed to make a rattling noise; or even with small spikes, in order not to be seized so easily by the enemy. Their points were covered with little wooden heads, to prevent injury to the wearer. The bracelets were also adorned in another manner, or were quite simple, as those on the upper part of the arm,—some narrow, and others broad. They open in one place, so as to pass over the hand; but are so exactly joined together, that the opening is scarcely to be perceived: thus proving the elasticity of iron in good workmanship. Some wore a shoemakers’ or sadlers’ apron, serving to ward off darts rather than as a covering, for they all, in other respects, go naked. The women have a similar apron around the lower part of their body, as I also saw in the village of Pagnaù; and excepting this leathern apron, they have no other attire. The lower part of the back was generally tattooed in many rows by vertical incisions. The Dinkas appear to have a particular dexterity and perseverance in this kind of basso-relievo; for we see the female slaves in Khartùm having their whole thorax covered with such incisions, and even in the form of festoons of leaves—a kind of toilet that might not be very pleasant to the tender skin of our coquettish ladies. We saw also some earrings of red copper, and there was always a hole for these in the ear; often also many holes in the rim of the ear for future trinkets, a small stick being placed in them to prevent them closing. These negroes cross and throw their legs under them in all directions; so that, compared with them, Orientals and tailors are only bunglers. They