Samburu Necklace SB.1.85 Necklace. Rendille. Samburu. Kenya. No 107. XI.BK.4. Original list: Samburu. Rendille. Collar. Beads, leather, vegetable fiber. Woman, girl “Ocher-colored necklace, made from a superposition of four bundles of brown vegetable fibers, which are held tight at the back by coiled leather strips. At the front, the fiber bundles are structured by a vertical row of seeds and glass pearls (originally blue), hiding a lacis of iron wire which allows to regulate their spacing. The whole is covered with an ocher and greasy coating. necklaces are sometimes mixed with giraffe hair or elephant hair (Donovan. 2005: 121). “On the wedding day, the bride wears the classic neck-piece that some define the necklace of fertility: it is a combination of plant fibers ornamented with beads. Some assert that inside this neck piece, there are little stones taken from the sacred mountain of the region “(Staff Of Consolata Fathers. Rendille: 24)” Highly prized necklaces, mpooro engorio, of doum palm fibers bound together with strips of ochred cloth (worn also by Samburu women) are received at marriage. When elephants were numerous these necklaces were made of hairs from an elephant’s tail “(A. Fisher. 1984: 39). Cf. Fedders, Salvadori. 1979: 27. Cf.” Samburu woman unable to bear children “and” Samburu woman recently married “by J. Adamson. 1967: 349. Category (s) Necklace Vernaculaire mpooro engorio Material (s) Plant fiber. Leather. Red pigments. Greasy coating. Seeds. Glass beads. Wire [Vegetable fiber. Leather. Red pigment. Greasy coating. Glass beads. Iron wire] Location (s) Kenya Centimeter Size (s) Length: 30 Width: 28 Height: 15