33 2 



THE LIVING RACES OF MANKIND 



are excited, however, by fear of witchcraft or a wish to revenge grave injuries, they can 

 become very demons of fanatical rage; and the people, that in their calmer moments will 

 shudder at an abrasion of the skin in a friend or neighbour, will, when he is convicted of 

 sorcery, leap and shout with frenzied joy around his fiery stake while he frizzles alive." 



The Bakongo are often known as the Bafiort (properly Bafiot), which, however, is not a 

 clan or even a tribal name, but merely an epithet meaning " Black," applied to them by their 

 Bakongo neighbours. The name Bafiort is well known, owing to its adoption by Dennett in 

 his works on the folklore and customs of these people. The Bakongo tribe is important in 

 connection with Negro religion, as it constitutes the fourth of Miss Kingsley's four schools of 

 West African fetish. Its fetish "is mainly concerned with the worship of the mystery of the 

 power of the Earth." Every normal death is attributed to witchcraft; some one is charged 

 by the medicine-man, and the accused is compelled to submit to the poison ordeal. Phallic 

 worship is included among the rites of the tribe, and the transition from boyhood to manhood 

 is marked by a prolonged and elaborate series of initiation rites. 



Passing from the Lower to the Middle Congo, we enter a region occupied by tribes of 

 pure Bantn stock. The chief tribes are the Bateke, about Stanley Pool; the Bayansi or Byyanzi, 

 above the junction of the Kasai; the Bangala, between the Ubangi and the Congo; and the 

 Balolo, in the great bend of the Congo. These people, says Johnston, "are pure Bantu, and 

 consequently greatly resemble other unmixed races of the same stock, such as the Ovambo, 

 the Balunda, and the people of Tanganyika and Nyasa. They differ from more negroid 

 Bakongo in having skins of a chocolate brown, and above all, in their abundant growth of 



hair. The beard, whiskers, and moustache are 

 always present, but are generally, in common 

 with the hair of the eyebrows and the eyelashes, 

 plucked out, from a prejudice against cultivating 

 hair anywhere but on the top of the head." The 

 body is extensively decorated with cicatrisation. 

 The characters of the skull vary considerably, 

 suggesting that even here there has been 

 a considerable intermixture of races. The nose 

 is usually flat, with widely opened nostrils, 

 but people with a high nose are not unknown. 

 The lips, again, are often thick and turned out- 

 ward, like those of the conventional "nigger," 

 but some of the people have thin lips. The 

 chin may be prominent and heavy, or weak 

 and receding. 



In mental characters the Middle Congo 

 natives are also more attractive than those of the 

 Lower Congo. The rnedicine-man is unimportant 

 or unknown: the people are not haunted by 

 poison ordeal or "pestered with initiation cere- 

 monies." In character, says Sir Harry Johnston, 

 "they are kindly, light-hearted, and full of sensi- 

 bility to beauty. They are fond of colour and 

 of music, and indulge in dancing that has much 

 meaning and grace. They are decidedly amorous 

 in disposition, but there is a certain poetry in 

 their feelings which ennobles their love above 

 mere passion. Husbands are fond of their own 

 wives as well as those of other people, and many 

 a pretty family picture may be seen in their 



A CONGO MAN AND WOMAN. 



