The forms are
unsupported, and the figure falls away at the hips. They retain the savage
fashion of coiffure shown in Cameron's 'Across Africa,' training their
wool to bunches, tufts, and horns. The latter is the favourite; the
pigtails, which stand stiff upright, and are whipped round like pricks of
tobacco, may number half a dozen: one, however, is the common style, and
the size is said to be determined by a delicate consideration. Opposed to
this is the highly civilised _atufu_, 'kankey,' or bussle, whose origin is
disputed. Some say that it prevents the long cloth clinging to the lower
limbs, others that it comes from a modest wish to conceal the forms; some
make it a jockey-saddle for the baby, others a mere exaggeration of
personal development, an attempt to make Aphrodite a Callipyge. I hold
that it arose, in the mysterious hands of 'Fashion,' from the knot which
secures the body-cloth, and which men wear in front or by the side.
Usually this bussle is a mere bundle of cloth; on dress occasions it is a
pad or cushion. I had some trouble to buy the specimen, which Cameron
exhibited in London.
Men and women are vastly given to 'chaffing' and to nicknaming.
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