482 CAPTAIN TUCKEY’S NARRATIVE. 
At Kincaya, in the valley of Bemba Macongo, we met 
with an Embomma slave merchant going into the interior 
for slaves. No information was to be got from him re- 
specting the river, pretending that he had never been up it. 
It 1s evident these merchants do not wish Europeans to 
penetrate into the country, lest they should interfere with 
their business. Here the cicatrices or ornamental marks 
on the bodies of both men and women were much more 
raised than in the lower parts of the River. The women 
in particular had their chests and belly below the navel 
embossed in a manner that must have cost them infinite 
pain, the way of effecting it being to seize the skin between 
the fore finger and thumb, and scarify it longitudinally with 
a sharp knife; and when this is done so deep as to draw 
