Thanks for the additiuonal information. Sweet that you friend called her kitty "Kiffa". Maybe she should rename her/him "Muraqat", as I prefer to call Mauritanian powderglass beads, though I used both names here, for reasons not to be misunderstood.

I propose we change old habbits and call the beads Muraqat ("The Colorful")- their real name (we should also say "FIORATO" and not "Wedding Cake" beads, in my opinion) in Mauritania, their place of origin. My main argument for a change is the fact that their name "Kiffa Beads" is not precise by any means. Muraqat have been made all over the country - but not (in the city of) Kiffa. 95% of Mauritanians have been nomadic herdsmen, walking their lifestock from maedow to maedow, according to seasonal rainfall (that was all to often missing consecutive years in a row, leading to a complete downfall of ancient traditions - incl. the tradition os making and wearing Muraqat). They were not stationed in a single place and definitely not in Kiffa, as my research in the country has proven.

It has been French Ethnologist-Historian Raymond Mauny who was the first to report about Muraqat. He met a woman OUTSIDE OF KIFFA (!) who was in the process of making the beads. Mauny did not call the beads "Kiffa Beads". It has been late Howard Opper and his wife to give the beads their collector's name "KIFFA BEADS", when searching for a title of their booklet on the beads, ca. 1990.

Old habits die hard - as we all know. I hope I'm not being dogmatic when proposing the use of the word Muraqat (Moo-Ra-Cut >phon.) as the better choice!