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THE HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COSTUME
ALBERT RACINET
THE CLASSIC WORK OF THE 19TH CENTURYp52-53
19TH CENTURY ANTIQUE CIVILIZATIONS
AFRICA
TIMBUCTOO - CROSSROADS OF AFRICA
Middle Register
2 A Chir left, from the middle Nile, with plaited hair partly covered by a cotton cap. His loincloth is made of fig leaves and his necklace and bracelets from ivory. In one hand he carries a pipe with an earthenware bowl and a long wooden stem, and in his other hand a javelin.
To his right are two Niams-Niams tribesmen (the name means "big eaters"), tattooed with patterns of lines, zigzags and squares. Their loincloths are made of animal skins and belted at the waist. The straw hood, left, worn exclusively by men, has a flat top decorated with feathers. They carry javelins, barbed lances and, right, the troumbache - a sabre with many curved blades.
To their right are two Bazy (sometimes Bary) from the White Nile region. The Bazy men do not wear clothes, but smear their bodies with yellow ochre. Their headdress is very similar to that of the Niams-Niams and the Chillouks: a pile of curled and plaited hair, decorated with rodents' teeth, left. The woman, right, wears a beautiful loincloth covered with shells and pieces of glass.
