Bells for tying to legs when dancing at Ngomas

Collection type: Object
Description: Bells for tying to legs when dancing at Ngomas
Long description: An older note attached to the bells says '100 bells price 8 shillings'. These are iron pellet bells (rather rusty and dusty) each bell made from a circular sheet bent in half over a single metal pellet. Two holes punched in the metal before folding, one at each end. The bells are strung side by side in rows of four, eighteen rows in all. The bells are threaded onto hide strips, other strips secure each length of bells together top and bottom, at each end of each row of four a length of hide hangs loose, for tying? [HLR]
Geographical reference: Kenya
Africa > Eastern Africa > Kenya; Malindi district Kilifi
Cultural groups: Giryama
Person: Field collector Henry Balfour; PRM source Henry Balfour
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1939?, uncertain
Date collected: ?By 1939
Acquisition information: Found unentered: 1945
Materials and processes: Material Iron Metal, Material Animal Hide Skin, Process Bent, Process Perforated
Dimensions: Width: max 180 mm, Length: max 600 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1945.10.143
Research and responses: This is listed under items ascribed to Balfour, but may not have been donated by him. [SD 25/4/2000]

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