Mabiha

Mabiha (Mavia), a people of East Central Africa, who occupy the lower course of the Rovuma. but are cut off from the coast by the intervening Makuas and Matambwes. They are scattered over their rugged plateaus, not in villages, but in family groups of one or two huts. Both sexes wear the pelele, a wooden disk or ring two inches in diameter, inserted in the upper lip, to which it gives the form of a duck's bill. In other respects the Mabiha greatly resemble the neighbouring Makondes, to whom Consul O'Neill affiliates them. (Proceedings of the Royal Geoyraphical Society, 1883.)