February 8, 19 12] 



NATURE 



485 



IHE PEOPLE OF SOUTH CENTRAL 

 CONGOLAND.' 



MR. HILTON-SIMPSON'S interesting book is a 

 valuable supplement to the monumental work 

 recentlv published by the Colonial Department of the 

 Belgian Government on the "Ethnography of the 

 Bushongo and Allied Peoples," a work written in 

 French by Mr. Emil Torday, the celebrated Hungarian 

 explorer, and Mr. T. Athol Joyce, of the British 

 Museum. The Torday-Joyce contribution to ethnology 

 adopted necessarily a somewhat impersonal aspect, 

 and the work of Mr. Hilton-Simpson now gives us a 

 more popular and personal account of the expedition 

 so ably organised by Mr. Emil Torday. At the same 

 •time, though the " Land and Peoples of the Kasai " 

 •mav be described as " popular " in style, it is fraught 

 with scientific interest. It 

 contains many valuable illus- 

 trations, "prises sur le vif," 

 the untouched photographs 

 of the author, besides the 

 ■beautiful and accurate draw- 

 ings in colour by Mr. Nor- 

 man Hardy, who accom- 

 ]);mied the expedition during 

 the first half of its stay in 

 Congoland. Amongst these 

 last must be mentioned with 

 «pecial praise for their artis- 

 'tic charm as well as their 

 absolute accuracy, " Wiss- 

 mann Pool" and "An Inci- 

 dent at Pana " (a charging 

 buffalo). 



The party of which Mr. 

 -Hilton-Simpson was a mem- 

 ber arrived at Boma, the 

 capital of the Independent 

 State of the Congo, at the 

 close of 1907. Here they ,had 

 to visit the offices of the Etat 

 Civil, where they filled up 

 *' matriculation " forms deal- 

 ing with their ages, their 

 occupations, and the dates of 

 their parents' birth, and other 

 " such matters of great in- 

 terest to the authorities," who 

 in the Congo State still too 

 often belong to that narrow- 

 minded bureaucratic class 

 which is rapidly becoming 

 extinct in Germany, Holland, 

 and France. Nevertheless, 

 the Belgians gave the kindest 

 and most whole-hearted 

 assistance to Mr. Torday's 

 expedition. Their mission 



was otTiciallv recognised by the Government; they 

 were spared all hindrances and given all due protec- 

 tion. And when it is remembered that their avowed 

 -object was to collect for the British Museum, and 

 thev came at a time when English public opinion, 

 with much, justification, was showing great indigna- 

 tion with the Leoix)ldian rdgime, it must be admitted 

 ; that the Belgian authorities on the Congo knew how 

 ■to rise above considerations of narrow nationalism 

 and to remember that thev were there to govern a 

 State which at that period was still international in 

 Its avowed character. 



From the Lower Congo the party was conveyed by 



' " I^nd and Peoples of the Kasai." Beinjr .-> narrative of a two ye.W 

 journey among the caniib,-ls of the equatorial forest and other savage tribes 

 '>f the south-western Consjo. By M. W. Hilton Simpson. Pp. xx -1-356. 

 ■ I,ondon : Constable and Co., Ltd., 1911.) 16s. net. 



NO. 2206, VOL. 88] 



railway and steamer to the Kasai. This river at once 

 contrasted with the main Congo by " simply teeming 

 with hippopotami, crocodiles, and innumerable varie- 

 ties of aquatic and other birds " ; for owing to some 

 unexplained reason the destruction of animal life along 

 its banks had been very little compared with the 

 devastation which has fallen on the main Congo 

 through the acquisition of guns by the natives and 

 the thirst for killing which has so long animated all 

 white pioneers, settlers, and steamer passengers in 

 that region. An interesting description is given of 

 the headquarters of the Kasai Company at Dima, 

 near the confluence between the Kasai and th£ 

 Kw-ango (the Kwango was the first of the great Congo 

 tributaries which entered into history, and was reached 

 by the Portuguese as early as the seventeenth 

 centurv, though its lower course remained unexplort»d 



Fig. I.— Head of Bos caffer simfisoiii. Kroni " Land and Peop'es of the Kasai.' 



\ and mysterious down to the close of the mn.-i. ,-11111 

 century). It is interesting to note that at Dima, as 

 elsewhere in the Congo, Belgian enterprises are 

 obliged to have recourse to the employment of educated 

 British negroes from West Africa— Sierra Leone, the 

 Gold Coast, and Lagos. Here is a sufficient answer 

 to the ignorant folk who sneer at the education of the 

 negro. As a matter of fact, public education in the 

 British West African colonies is far too much neglected 

 bv the British Government, especially in the Gold 

 C:'oast. If it were improved, there is no saying how 

 far it might not extend British influence and the 

 spread of the English language throughout West and 

 Central Africa. 



The partv continued its journey up the Kasai, 

 noting on the way an extraordinary epidemic of 



