THE BANZIRIS OF THE CONQO BASIN. 675 



seem very much like the ideal savages of the philosophers of the 

 eighteenth century. They address strangers as their friends, and 

 wear the amiable and pleasant smiles of children. 



They eat dog-meat with great relish, drowning the animal and 

 cooking it without skinning or dressing it. This meat is rigor- 

 ously forbidden to the women, who have no part in preparing the 

 dish. They believe, or affect to believe, that it would make 

 women sick. So rigorously is the prohibition kept, that the 

 Banziris wash themselves carefully after eating dog before touch- 

 ing a woman, if only with the tips of their fingers. Schweinfurth 

 maintains that dog- eating is an indication of cannibalism, but the 

 Banziris strenuously deny every charge of that kind. Besides 

 the edible dog, their domestic animals are a few goats and hens. 

 But the basis of their food supply is afforded by the fishery. They 

 cultivate the banana and manioc, and, as accessories, tobacco, se- 

 same, a little corn, and millet. This agriculture is carried on in a 

 commercial way by family or village groups. 



We could not learn whether the Banziris have any elements 

 of religion. They wear no amulets and have no visible fetiches. 

 We observed only one sign of superstition among them. Before 

 starting a-fishing they planted some twigs in the ground, put in 

 the midst of them a handful of cowries, and sprinkled them with 

 fat. The ceremony was supposed to secure an abundance of fish to 

 the one who performed it, but I never learned to whom the sacri- 

 fice was offered. The political organization of the people is not 

 much more developed than their religious faith. He is chief who 

 has the most wives, children, slaves, pirogues, and particularly 

 who has boldness to carry on transactions with the whites in the 

 best interest of the tribe. On the death of the father the eldest 

 son inherits the pirogues ; the other goods are divided, while the 

 lands are the collective property of the village or the hamlet. 



Men and women go nearly nude. A little breechcloth of na- 

 tive goods, made of the bark of a species of ficus described by 

 Schweinfurth, composes all their dress. The men when they go 

 sailing put off even this little bit of clothes, to avoid soiling it. 

 Girls continue totally naked till they are married; three cowries, 

 a few pearls, or a little bell hanging in front of their bodies and 

 held by a belt of pearls or a narrow leather strap, emphasize their 

 nudity. Beads, in necklaces, in armlets, or pins and beads in the 

 hair, form an important element in the toilets of both sexes. 



The young women are very charming. Their type is the same 

 as that of the men, but their features are more delicate, with 

 straight nose, small mouth, and slender but not too thin forms. 

 They are sociable with the whites and make themselves innocently 

 agreeable to them as they would to young men of their own tribe, 

 but always with discretion ; and they seemed to excel all the other 



