It seemed that he could see her now, nine years old, thin as a stick, with her hair in thin plaits like black ropes, sucking her scratched thumb and weeping.

With a grimace she added beads of green jade woven into the thin plaits.

Her hair, dyed a subtly darker shade, had been dressed in long thin plaits, studded with tinier shells.

A skinny, cross face with freckles and a thin, sandy plait.

She was lying in bed, her hair in two thin little plaits jutting out at the side of her head, her face a grayish color.

Her thin plait of hair dangled over him.

With her thin grey plait dangling and bald patches showing on her scalp she looked old and very tired.

He was a big man in his seventies, long-faced and bald, his pate polished like an ancient ivory carving, his sparse white beard braided into two thin plaits.

Examining the table, she nodded to herself in approval, the beads in her thin plaits clicking.

Paul put the long thin plait of grey hair over her shoulder and kissed her.