284 STRANGE CUSTOMS OF SAVAGE RULERS. 



fashion of walls, are all that a Congo man cares for in a house. 

 His clothing is as simple as his lodging, a piece of native cloth, tied 

 round his middle being all that he cares for; so that the ample 

 clothes and handsome furs v^orn by the king must have had a very 

 strong effect on the almost naked populace. 



The Jagas are a race now settled in Cassange coimtry, into 

 which they seem originally to have entered as marauders or con- 

 querers. In the early state of the kingdom they were ruled by 

 Tembandumba — a queen whose excesses, if not exaggerated in the 

 narrative, seem demoniacal in their extent. She soon, by her 

 exploits in war, made herself feared and respected by enemies and 

 subjects; but so terrible were her cruelties and tyranny, that only 

 the awe in which she was held prevented her subjects rebelling. 

 She had a host of lovers, all of whom, one after the other, she killed 

 with the most cruel tortures as soon as she had tired of them. 

 Breaking loose from all her relatives — who had ventured to remon- 

 strate with her — she founded a constitution which only a woman, 

 and one willing to proceed to those extremes of which the sex is 

 capable, could have imagined. 



HORRIBLE PRACTICES. 



"She would turn," writes Mr. Winwood Reade, "the world into 

 a wilderness ; she would kill all living animals ; she would burn all 

 forests, grass, and vegetable food. The sustenance of her subjects 

 should be the flesh of man; his blood should be their drink. She 

 commanded all male children, all twins, and all infants whose upper 

 teeth appeared before their lower ones, should be killed by their own 

 mothers. From their bodies an ointment should be made, in the 

 way she would show. The female children should be reared, and 

 instructed in war ; and male prisoners, before being killed and eaten, 

 should be used for the purpose of procreation. 



"Having concluded her harrangue, with the publication of 

 other laws of minor importance, this young woman seized her 

 child, which was feeding at her breast, flung him into a mortar, 

 and pounded him to a pulp. She flung this into a large earthen pot, 

 adding roots, leaves, and oil, and made the whole into an ointment, 



