Double strand of green, blue and white beads threaded on goatskin, with two cowrie shells at one end. Ornaments of this type are made by married women and worn by them from ear to ear lobe in front of the throat. The blue and white beads represent peace and long life. A woman wears it if she has a son who is a moran (warrior). If she has two sons who are morans, she will wear two double strings. When her son is made an elder, she will just tie it around her neck underneath all her beads. It would have been made by women.

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.

If you have any further information about objects in our collections or can suggest corrections to our information, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk