
Location: Achala, Alaigbo | Date: ?Unsure?, Before 1913 | Credit: Thomas

Immense ankle plates are a main part of female costume in the Ibo country. Many of them are made in Birmingham and afterwards decorated with incised designs by native smiths. The women wear them permanently, stuffing rags between the skin and the metal to prevent chafing, and walking with a curious swing of the leg to avoid rubbing the plates together.

A rope composed of twisted creepers encircles the trunk and the body of the climber, and by a series of jerks it is raised a foot or more at a time, the weight of the man's body preventing it from slipping. The rapidity with which these climbers literally "walk" up a palm-tree is marvellous. The large knife is for the purpose of severing the bunches of nuts.