We may class the Fnlah among the Negroes, as in physical peculiarities they are not strikingly different, especially from the eastern Negroes, and from the east the Fnlah came to the country of the Yolofs, which is their chief habitat in the west. The color of their skin, mostly of a reddish brown, becomes light, sometimes even a leather-yellow, but not unfre quently darkens through a coffee-brown to an ebony-black.
The hair of their head, although not rarely woolly, is generally less frizzled and also longer than the Negro hair, and they wear it in curls or artistically arrange and braid it about the head (N. 9r, figs. 6, 7, TO, 1). Aquiline noses frequently occur, also large, widely-opened eyes, as a con sequence of which their features often do not seem Negro-like, although the mouth remains large. But all these traits we found among the Negroes. Though other ethnologists pronounce the Fulfill to be " an intermediate form between Negroes and Arabians and Berbers," it is more correct to assume them to be a Negro people without pronounced Negro peculiarities. Their voice is praised, while among the Negroes, in both the east and west, the voice is weak, indistinct, and shrill.
Disfigurement of the Body. —The hair of the body is generally removed by the Negroes; the incisor teeth are extracted among some tribes at the time of manhood fig. To), among others only filed to a point; the ear-lobes (sometimes also the interior of the auricle, as among the Mon buttus) are mostly pierced (pl. 97, fig. 5)—among the women of the Barn barra and some tribes of the interior (Marghi, Ainsgu) the lips also—in order to place a plug of wood, a stone, or a piece of metal in them (fil. 92, fig. 14; pl. 99, fig. 2); both lips, or the upper lip in the manner of the Mauganyas 89, fig. 2), are disfigured by the women of the Mittu and other tribes of the Nile, while others again bore rows of holes in the upper lip, the edge of the auricle, and even the outside of the nose, in order to put short straws into the openings. Circumcision is practised frequently in the west, but not by all nations; in the cast it is not at all found among the tribes of the Nile, but the Monbuttus and sonic smaller tribes related to them practise it; almost all make scars or certain tattoo-marks (the lat ter never very extensive) on their heads or bodies, which serve as tribal marks. According to Schweinfurth, the Bongos pierce the skin of the
belly at the navel and place in it a small piece of wood or a plug.
Hair-Dressing.-The hair is frequently cut short or shaved, often only a crown of hair remaining (A/. SS, fig. 19; /51. 94, fig. 4), and sometimes it is entirely removed (i51. 93, fig. 3); or it is worn in the oddest manner sometimes in long thin curls, sometimes like a helmet-crest on the top of the head (pl. 93, fig. 6, the sitting figure to the right) or standing out like a broad halo all around the head (p. 96, 2), or, as among the Niain-Niam, braided up over large wheel-like wooden frames, and among the Monbuttus drawn up over a cylindrical wooden frame and braided in fine strings, often mixed with false hair about the forehead, etc. It is also decorated with feathers (pi. 93, fig. 6), bushes of plumes of various kinds, with ribbons, beads, with caps laced with beads (151. 94, figs. 4, 6; p/. 97, fig. 5, to the right), and in the east it is not unfrequently dyed red by means of cow's urine.
Castiline.-In those regions where the Negroes live without contact with European or Semitic civilization they wear but little clothing, the men often only a small loin-cloth, or, as among many tribes of the east (Nuer, Djur, Shilluk, Dinka, and others, pi. 94, fig. r), they are entirely naked. But also among them the nobles and the rich sometimes wear a loin-scarf as a decoration. The unmarried women of these tribes are also frequently nude (Alamos, p. 99, Ag. 2), but the married women wear almost ever• where either a wrap of skins about the hips or a bunch of leaves both in front and back; among the Monbuttns the aprons of the women are very scant, but they always carry a strip of bast with them which they throw over their laps in sitting down. The Monbuttu men cover themselves with bark substances, those of the Niam-Niani with hides. Some of the eastern nations-as the Niam-Niain, for instance-paint their entire bodies red or white (fi/. 94, fig. 4, middle), or in stripes or designs. In Central Africa, Mohammedan attire made of cotton materials is worn; in the west, either this or a more or less European dress, or the primitive scarf, forms the attire 05/. 91, figs. 3-7, 10, II; pi. 92, figs. 1-3, 20; IV. 93, figs. I, 2, 4, 5; fit. 99, fig. 2, the women to the left).