HAIR WORN AS A HELMET.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3380, 27 June 1927, Page 7

HAIR WORN AS A HELMET.

DISCOVERY OF A NEW SUDAN TRIBE.

A new African tribe, the male members of which affect a novel head-dress, is reported by Mr J. H. Dnberg, the explorer and anthropologist. ihey are known as the Didinga, and dwell anion" the mountains of that name m the remote south-eastern extremity ot the Sudan. . Their country borders on Abyssinia, Kenya, and Uganda A band iff einlaws' dwelling over the border in Aliyssin in luiv6 been in tho hnbit ol raiding the Didinga, carrying off cattle and slaves. Not being powerful enough to strike back, and feeling the loss of their cattle, they began to raid peaceful villages in the administered areas ot the Sudan and also the boundary in Ugan‘To stop these raids the Uganda Government sent Mr Driberg into the Didinga Mountains. “They are a magnificent race of mountaineers,” he says, “clean, healthy, and vigorous, they wear but little "clothing, and what they do wear is virtually proscribed by convention and has little utilitarian value. But they possess the primitive instinct for adornment, and metal and bead ornaments have a great attraction tor both sexes. “Their most pronounced characteristic. is the head-dress of the men. Tt is called a temedek, and consists of the hair trained into the shape of an inverted basin or a halmoral. As the hair grows, it is worked into a kind of felt by intennatting it. In order to speed up the process of growth other hair is sometimes woven in. Tt requires about five months to grow a complete headdress, and when it has grown it needs constant attention.

One of Mr Driberg’s first tasks was to build a fort and train a number ol Didinga as a police force. He found them willing workmen and good soldiers. Attached to the post there is a prison, and it is invariably full, not of prisoners brought there against their wish, but of men who have sought the prison as a place of refuge. One of the customs of the Didinga is that if a man commits a tribal offence lie may seek shelter until friends have condoned his misdeed. Should he he caught before a settlement is arrived at he is punished. Thus, if a man commits a wrong he hastens to the prison and works like a convict lor the Government till friends arrange his release.