his favourite camel. There are a few celebrated ethical compositions, in
which the father lavishes upon his son all the treasures of Somali good
advice, long as the somniferous sermons of Mentor to the insipid son of
Ulysses. Sometimes a black Tyrtaeus breaks into a wild lament for the loss
of warriors or territory; he taunts the clan with cowardice, reminds them
of their slain kindred, better men than themselves, whose spirits cannot
rest unavenged in their gory graves, and urges a furious onslaught upon
the exulting victor.

And now, dear L., I will attempt to gratify your just curiosity concerning
_the_ sex in Eastern Africa.

The Somali matron is distinguished--externally--from the maiden by a
fillet of blue network or indigo-dyed cotton, which, covering the head and
containing the hair, hangs down to the neck. Virgins wear their locks
long, parted in the middle, and plaited in a multitude of hard thin
pigtails: on certain festivals they twine flowers and plaster the head
like Kafir women with a red ochre,--the _coiffure_ has the merit of
originality. With massive rounded features, large flat craniums, long big
eyes, broad brows, heavy chins, rich brown complexions, and round faces,
they greatly resemble the stony beauties of Egypt--the models of the land
ere Persia, Greece, and Rome reformed the profile and bleached the skin.
They are of the Venus Kallipyga order of beauty: the feature is scarcely
ever seen amongst young girls, but after the first child it becomes
remarkable to a stranger. The Arabs have not failed to make it a matter of
jibe.

"'Tis a wonderful fact that your hips swell
Like boiled rice or a skin blown out,"