Gentlemen remarkable by a raie, which as in the Scotch terrier
begins above the eyes and runs down the back, should be grateful
to me for this sporting offer.
Nothing simpler than the Fan toilette. Thongs and plaits of goat,
wild cat, or leopard skin gird the waist, and cloth, which is
rare, is supplied by the spoils of the black monkey or some other
"beef." The main part of the national costume, and certainly the
most remarkable, is a fan of palm frond redolent of grease and
ruddled with ochre, thrust through the waist belt; while new and
stiff the upper half stands bolt upright and depends only when
old. It suggests the "Enduap" (rondache) of ostrich-plumes worn
by the Tupi-Guarani barbarians of the Brazil, the bunchy caudal
appendages which made the missionaries compare them with pigeons.
The fore part of the body is here decked with a similar fan, the
outspread portion worn the wrong way, like that behind. The
ornaments are seed-beads, green or white, and Loangos (red
porcelain). The "bunch" here contains 100 to 120 strings, and up
country 200, worth one dollar; each will weigh from one to three,
and a wealthy Fan may carry fifteen to forty-five pounds.
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