Baton Rouge tri-weekly gazette & comet. [volume] (Baton Rouge, La.) 1865-18??, 1866-04-19
The Gazette &Gllnet

STRANGE CusToMss--The follow
ling is curious account Of the habits
and customs Of some Of the tribes in
the interior Of Africa, as we find it
in the new volume of travels by
David and Charles Livingstone just
issued in London. Speaking Of the
women In Morambala, the narrative
says:
"These damsels looked with con-
siderable disgust on the 'men in
bags as the trowsered whites were
called. Even the less fastidious ma
irons quieted their children by'threat-
ening to fetch the white man to bite
them. in their eyes, DIR. Livingstone,
busy with the wet and dry bulb
Thermometers, was an object Of pity.
playing with toys, like little boy =
but when they beheld the travellers
spreading butter, raw BUTTER on
their bread, their disgust was beyond
expression. They only use butter,
after melting il, to annoint their
heads and bodies.
"The most wonderful of ornaments,
if such it may be called, is the pelele
or upper-lip ring of the women. The
middle of the upper lip Of the ring ia
pierced close to the septum of the
nose, and small pin inserted to pre-
vent the puncture closing up. After
it has healed the pin ID taken out
and larger one is pressed into it's
place, and so on successively for
weeks, and months and years. The
process Of increasing the size Of the
lip goes on till its capacity becomes
so great that ring of two inches in
diameter can be introduced with ease.
"All the highland women wear
the pelele, and it is common in the
upper and lower shire. The poorer
classes make them Of hollow or of
solid bamboo, but the weather. of
ivory or tin. The tin pelele 10 often
made in the form of small dish.
The ivory one is not unlike a nap
kin ring. No woman ever appears
in public without the pelele, except
in times of mourning for the dead.
1t is frightfully ugly to see the upper
| lip projecting two inches beyond the
tip Of the nose. When an old wearer
of a hollow bamboo ring smiles, by
the action of the muscles of the
cheeks the ring and lip outside of il
are dragged back and thrown above
the eyebrows. The nose is seen.
through the middle of the ring, and
the exposed teeth show how care
fully they have been Clipped to look
like those of cat or crocodile. .
"The pelele of an old lady, Chi
kanda Kadze, chieftainess, about
twenty miles north of Morambala,
hung down below her chin, with, of
course, piece of the upper lip
around its border. The labial letters
cannot be properly pronounced, but
the under lip has to do it's best for
them against the upper teeth and
gum. Tell them it makes them
ugly; they had better throw it
away; they reply, 'Kodil Really!
| it is the fashion!' How this hide
GUS fashion originated is an enigma,
Can thick lips ever have been
thought beautiful, and this mode Of
artificial enlargement resorted to in
consequence
"The constant twiddling of the
pelele with the. tongue by the
younger women suggested the irrev-
erent idea that it might have been
invented to give safe employment to
that little member, why do the
women wear these things = we in
quired of the old chief, Chinsune.
Evidently surprised at such stupid
question, he replied, For beauty, to
be surel Men have boards and
whiskers women have none; and
what kind of creature would a wo-
man be without whiskers and with
out pelele2 She would have a
mouth like man, and no beard;
ha! ha ha = Afterwards, on the
Rovuma, we found men wearing the
pelele as well as women"