As one travels through the country one sees that the ladies of the various tribes exercise more gradation. Change is not so sudden. The two fronds of leaves give place to one, which is worn either fore or aft, according to individual fancy. Further on, a bunch of grass stalks, six inches long, secured by a string round the body, hanging behind and looking like a table crumb-brush, constitutes the sole extraneous adornment to the female form divine.
Then, presently, even so much is not used. In some of these last areas, during the first few months of married life the matron dons a thin plait of skin or grass round the waist, as a kind of wedding-ring, probably to warn all and sundry gallants that henceforth they may not pay their court to her. In one large village I saw some unmarried girls each with a walking-out costume consisting of a small bell, made by the native blacksmith, tied by a string round the loins and suspended in front tinkling.
The absence of any corporate government, civil or military, among the Pagans makes getting into touch with the people a slow and tedious process. They never, like the Fulani and Hausa tribes, had police, prisons and other adjuncts for ruling. Questions that affected the community were decided by public opinion. If there were persons who were a danger or a nuisance, the villagers assembled and settled what was to be done to the delinquents. They might deny an indictment and be tried “by ordeal”; or, waiving that test, the verdict would be death or being despatched to the Hausa country and sold for slaves. Pagan villages and hamlets which paid annual tribute of slaves to the Fulani Emirites disposed of their own desirables in that way, filling up the quota by raiding other villages.
PAGAN FEMININE FASHIONS.
There are Pagan “Kings” and Chiefs, but their authority in many instances is slight and always confined to a limited area. The Burrum tribe—one of the largest—comprises 26 large villages, called towns, each with a separate and independent Chief. The regulations for succession to a chiefship are not uniform in all tribes. At Burrum towns the eldest brother of a deceased Chief takes his place; in the absence of eligible brothers, the son of the defunct occupies the post. With the Jarawas, the Headmen of a town elect a Chief from the family of the last one. It is usually the eldest brother. The Rukuba Chiefs, whose authority is stronger than in most Pagan tribes, nominate their successors, which is either a son or a brother, according to preference.