Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-01-10
THE BELLIES OF AFRICA.
How They Enhance Their Charms
 and Wild Beauty.
Young Women Decorated from Head to Feet in Cheap Beads-A Strange Gar ment Worn m Peculiar Manner
 Curious Toilet Secrets.

Gorgeous is hardly the word to appl, to the gct-up of the ordinary African savage but. writes Thomas Stevens in the New York World it may well be al lowed to stand in regard to the gala costumes of the plump and oily-skinned Wa-Teita bellcs, who fairly took posses sion of our camp on this occasion.
 The weight of beads they carry and the manner in which they are worn must be exceedingly uncomfortable. But they care no more for comfort where fashion is concerned than do the ladies of Paris or New York. The savage belle is, in fact, always greater votary of fashion than her civilized sister. If Miss Fashionplate of America converts herself into a wasp and the Golden Lily of China discards her feet at the dic- tates of fashion, rest assured that the dark daughters of the savage continent act well up to their lights in the same direction. But the M'Teita belle does nothing absurd. There are no holes bored in her lips, nor is her we'll oiled body disfgured by tattooing as are the women of many savage peoples. She files her front teeth to a sharp point, which leads you to draw irreverent comparisons between her knowing smile and the jaws of rat-trap. Her chin is elevated like a British soldiers by tho enormous collar of beads she wears, and various other little pcculiari- ties reveal themselves to our eyes or our nostrils as she poses before our tent to bo admired; but with all this, l say she is neither a human wasp nor person who has to be carried pick-aback from having destroyed her feet.
 But let us endeavor to draw a picture of her as near as one may in mere words. In the first place. you see nothing of a fashionable M"reita woman's neck. The whole contour from chin to collar-bone is filled out with a bulky roll of hun dreds of strings of many-colored beads that elevates tho chin and impedes the l movements of tho head. Forty or fifty | other and longer strings suspended from eacl. shoulder cross between the breasts, forming a bandolier that seemed to us ] as much of burden as an ornament. Another huge coil encircles tho waist, or, in some instances, instead of in- numerable strings, bead belt of curi- ous pattern and neat design. One would think this were beads enough to satisfy even the most bead-loving Afri- CuA udulStl. OuU tNcll IuoSS HldSS1 t | accumulations fall short of perfection in the eye of the M'Teita belle. Wher- ever there is room about her person to bestow a bead, there, rest assured, will the bead be found, if she has enough to go round. The head is shaved so as to leave a circular patch of wool on the l crown, about three inches in diameter l A broad band, or coronct, of beads on. | circles and covers this shaven part, and 1 the hair of the crown is gathered and twisted into hundreds of tiny strings on each of which is threaded red white, blue or green bead. Hoops oi beads threaded on wire adorn the cars neat cuff-lille bands of tho same bright articles cncircle arms and legs; and, in deed, the tig-leaf, With which her simpl. soul satisfies the requirements of de cency, is tiny apron of beads, fringec and embellished by border of tiny iron chains of Chaga workmanship.
 But the most curious object about the Mount Lcitar ladies' costume, ant which was seen by us on tho women o
 no other tribe, is observed from a bacl
 view. Suspended from the bead
 around her waist is a piece of goatskin
 patterned after an exaggerated swallow
 tail. the pointed cXtremitics of whicl
 descend to the calves and flap jauntil, l about her legs as she walks. It is need
 less to add that this strange garmen
 also is adorned with beads.
 | Picture to yourself a hundred or S
 chocolate-hucd women of all sizes an,
 ages, onc-half of their persons glistcn
 ing like patent leather in the brigh
 sun, with every motion of their suppl
 bodies, b. reason of the liberal dressing
 of castor-oil they have plastered on, an,
 the other half bright and barbarous o
 color-masscs of beads, and you hay
 with us seen q truly East African spec
 tacle. But take ~y advice and cla
 your handkerchief to your nose in defer
 ence to that particularly flashing youn
 lady who is approaching tho tent. Sh
 has been making her toilet afresh fo
 the conquests of tho afternoon anon
 the porters. In other words, she ha
 just come from her hut, after anointin
 from head to foot with pint or so c
 extremely odorifcrous oil. How sh
 shines and glistens-and what bot quet! And how proud and self-consciou
 she Is of these added charms! She ca
 not help smiling as she notes our look of admiration and approval. Or lillel = she smiles to let us see to what fin
 points her teeth have been filed. w
 note the teeth and also curious shar
 and lively twinkling of the bright
 beady black eyes, which betrays tn fact that every lash, which in othe ) lands are coveted by the fair sex for tn P softened express,ion they impart ha , been removed.
 Comfort for the Patient.
 Are you feeling better this morning 8 Uncle Henry?" "Yes. Angie dear. ? "Youll soon bo well now, won't yor