"The Mundas," Colonel Dalton states, "are one of the finest of the
aboriginal tribes. The men average something like 5 feet 6 inches,
and many of them are remarkably well developed and muscular. Their
skin is of the darkest brown, almost black in many cases, and their
features coarse, with broad flat noses, low foreheads and thick lips,
presenting as a rule a by no means prepossessing appearance. The women
are often more pleasing, the coarseness of the features being less
accentuated or less noticeable on account of the extreme good-nature
and happy carelessness that seldom fail to mark their countenance. They
are fond of ornament, and a group of men and girls fully decked out
for a festival makes a fine show. Every ornament in the shape of bead
necklace, silver collar, bracelet, armlet and anklet would seem to have
been brought out for the occasion. The head-dress is the crowning point
of the turn-out. The long black hair is gathered up in a big coil, most
often artificially enlarged, the whole being fastened at the right-hand
side of the back of the head just on a level with and touching the
right ear. In this knot are fastened all sorts of ornaments of brass
and silver, and surmounting it, stuck in every available space, are
gay plumes of feathers that nod and wave bravely with the movements
of the dance. The ears are distorted almost beyond recognition by huge
earrings that pierce the lobe and smaller ones that ornament them all
round." In Mandla women are tattooed with the figure of a man or a
man on horseback, and on the legs behind also with the figure of a
man. They are not tattooed on the face. Men are never tattooed.