LOVE LANGUAGE IN BEADS
The Zulu maidens of South Africa are adept in weaving necklaces, head ornaments and other items of decorative costumery, in beads, in much the same way that our American Indians made their wampum. Floral designs and geometric patterns both figure prominently in these creations of the Zulu fashion world, and the colours of the beads speak a special language of love.
The Zulu girl, living in her native village, will often send a bead-letter in the form of a necklace to the young man of her choice, who may be working in some distant town, telling him exactly what is on her mind by means of the colors she employs.
Green beads indicate that she loves him truly, but a border of red beads means she is angry about something he has done or failed to do. Blue beads introduced into the design warn the young man that she will fly from him like a dove unless he hastens to patch things up, and yellow beads mean that, once flown, she will never return - the affair is over for good. A necklace liberally sprinkled with blue and yellow beads never fails to bring the wavering suitor to heel, so they say in Zululand.
Next February, when the CARONIA Five Continents World Cruise visits Durban, the second port of call in South Africa, her passengers will have an opportunity to visit Zululand, which covers an area of 10,000 square miles and has a population estimated at about 400,000 people, many of whom still live in the picturesque beehive huts of their forefathers.
[Produced for the Great World Cruise departing New York 29 January 1966]