288 STRANGE CUSTOMS OF SAVAGE RULERS. 



middle. Their domestic utensils are on a par with this primitive 

 barbarism. Baskets made of the fibre of the palm-tree, bowls of 

 gomxls, earthen vessels for boiling, wooden spoons, and beds of 

 grass on a raised platform are about the only furniture of their 

 simple huts. Whatever magnificence once existed is now almost 



gone. 



UNIVERSAL POLYGAMY. 



Though Portuguese, and latterly English, missions have been 

 established among these tribes, fetishism is still to a great extent 

 the prevailing semblance of worship, the Cross being regarded 

 simply as new fetish introduced by the powerful white man. Poly- 

 gamy is universal, and the marriage ceremony little more than buy- 

 ing the wife from her parents, and giving a feast to her family 

 and friends. But if the nuptial rites are brief and simple, their 

 sepulchral ceremonies are more elaborate, for frequently, in order 

 to admit of all the relatives being present, the interment of the 

 deceased will be delayed several months. The dead are frequently 

 desiccated by roasting, and then buried in the huts which they occu- 

 pied during life. 



Of late years the natives of the Congo have received renewed 

 attention. Expeditions have often been despatched a little up the 

 river for the purpose of trade and exploration, or in order to punish 

 the Mussurongo pirates, who have frequently attacked the vessels 

 engaged in carrying goods to or from the "factories" established 

 below the Yellala Falls. 



Before leaving the customs of the Congoese, we must notice 

 that the eating habits of some of the Congo tribes are very curious. 

 They are, like all the Negro races, enormous feeders, as many as 

 300 oxen having been known to be killed and eaten when a "soba" 

 or chief of the Mundombes, dies, the feast lasting for several days, 

 the gluttons often rolling on the ground in the agonies of indigestion, 

 but only to rise again and resume eating, abstaining meanwhile from 

 drink, lest it should prevent them from finding room for the solids. 



Among some of the natives a singular custom prevails. It 

 consists in offering a visitor a dish of "infundi," or "pirao," and 



