210 THROUGH ANGOLA 



fortable and even painful habits and customs as 

 among the negroes of Africa, and the Angola 

 native is no exception. Who but an African 

 would chip his splendid teeth with an axe-head 

 in order to sharpen them to his desire, or even 

 remove some of them, as do the Humbe, Ovambo, 

 and Ba Cubal tribes ; or enlarge a hole in his 

 ear till it will hold a small jam-pot ; or scar his 

 body w r ith innumerable cuts in order to make 

 tribal marks on his face, or fancy designs on his 

 body, as do some of the Congo and Lunda people 

 of Angola ? 



The negro's wife is even more insensible to 

 discomfort than her mate ; for beside all these 

 painful mutilations that he will surfer, she will 

 also wear shells in her nostrils, ornaments in her 

 upper lip so large that it is difficult for her to 

 eat, and bangles on her legs and arms so heavy 

 that it must be an effort for her to move. 



No one but an African could stand the rough- 

 and-ready methods of their medicine-men, with 

 the blunt and rusty knives or even sharp stones 

 that they use for all kinds of surgery ; and none 

 but African women could bear the barbarous 

 methods of dealing with abnormal childbirth. I 

 suppose it is because of the hard lives these people 

 lead, and their want of sensibility, that they 

 tolerate such things. 



Nature's readiness to yield an easy living, and 

 the greed and tyranny of his stronger neighbour, 

 have combined to make the African the improvi- 

 dent creature he is. Even in the house, he rarely 

 st:or:-s r'-'x'i for fnhr;;- n<-cds, dvcdimf its seizure : 



