THE HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COSTUME

ALBERT RACINET

THE CLASSIC WORK OF THE 19TH CENTURY

p52-53

19TH CENTURY ANTIQUE CIVILIZATIONS

AFRICA

TIMBUCTOO - CROSSROADS OF AFRICA

Upper Register

1. The gandoura, left, with wide sleeves, coral jewellery and a hood decorated with bows of silk or cotton. Unusually for this part of Africa, women are not compelled to wear veils. Far right is a tarboosh, an undervest and a jacket embroidered with silk.
The central figures in 1 are Chillouks, from the Upper Nile. They wear few clothes, but pay considerable attention to their headdresses. Men cover their hair with clay, gum and cattle dung in order to sculpt it into shapes such as helmets or fans.
The right hand figure of the pair is a king, wearing a regal headdress that consists of a fur fixed with large pins. His companion wears a panther skin and necklaces of shells and ivory.

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