

556 PYGMIES AND FOREST NEGROES 



distinct porch), but are thatched quite differently in a uniform descent 

 of grass, and without those " flounces " so characteristic of the huts 'of 

 the Nile countries from the north-west coast of Lake Albert to Khartum, 

 Abyssinia, and Kordofan. 



The Mbuba and the Bantu-speaking Negroes of the Congo Forest from 

 the Semliki Valley to the Upper Congo are all circumcised. The Mbuba 

 generally leave their teeth unmutilated. On the other hand, almost all the 

 Babira peoples under their varying designations, and some of the Baamba, 

 file the front teeth of the upper jaw to sharp points. (This is well illustrated 

 in the accompanying photograph of people of the Congo Forest. The people 

 in this illustration come from the extreme Upper Congo at some distance 

 from the Uganda frontier, but in many respects they are akin in race to 

 the Babira). The Bambuba, who are closely related to the Momfu farther 

 in the interior, often pierce the upper lip in much the same way as is done 

 by the Dwarfs, the Baamba, and some of the Babira, but the Bambuba 

 have a rather peculiar hook of iron which they insert into these holes. 

 The Bahuku and Baamba, who live alongside the Bambuba, pierce the 

 upper lip and insert a number of iron or brass rings. Otherwise the 

 Bambuba do very little in the way of scarring or "ornamenting" the body. 

 The Babira, who dwell to the north-west of the Semliki beyond the Bambuba, 

 have a curious practice in the women which recalls the lip-ring of Nyasaland 

 and the Zambezi, the " pelele." The women pierce the upper lip with 

 one hole, in which the} 7 insert a button of wood until the hole is widened 

 to admit of a large wooden disc which stretches out the upper lip in a 

 stiff manner like a duck's bill. All these Bantu-speaking forest folk between 

 the slopes of Ruwenzori, the Semliki, and the Upper Congo practise 

 " cicatrisation " to a remarkable extent. In most of these Central African 

 tribes there is no " tattooing " — that is to say, the skin is not punctured 

 and then rubbed with a colouring matter. Scores and weals of skin are 

 raised either by burning or by cutting with a knife, and introducing the 

 irritating juice of a plant into the wound. The effect of this is to raise 

 on the surface of the body large or small lumps of skin. Sometimes these 

 raised weals are so small that they produce almost the effect of tattooing. 

 At other times, as can be seen by my illustrations, they are large excres- 

 cences. The Babira people of the forest near the Semliki cicatrise their 

 chests and stomachs, but farther away in the forest towards the waters 

 of the Congo the faces are hideously scarred in the manner illustrated by 

 the photographs of a man and woman on p. 555. All these forest people 

 circumcise, and none of them go absolutely naked. However minute may 

 be the piece of bark-cloth or skin which hangs from the waist girdle, it 

 is carefully arranged so as to cover the pudenda. In this respect they 

 differ markedly from the adjoining people of the grass-lands (especially to 



