298 ANTHROPOLOGY 



and low over the bridge, prominent cheek-bones, 

 thick, everted hps, and weak chin. The eyes are 

 usually black or dark brown, deeply set, and pos- 

 sessing short, very thick, curling lashes and well- 

 marked eyebrows. The ears are small, well-shaped, 

 and set close to the side of the head, and almost all 

 the tribes of this part of Africa bore large holes 

 into the ear-lobes, in which various articles are 

 carried, such as rats and mice for the evening meal,* 

 tobacco, cigarettes, and other smaU matters. In 

 spite of these general facial characteristics, however, 

 it is not unusual to meet with Africans from these 

 districts possessing features of much greater delicacy 

 than those to which the foregoing description could 

 be taken as applying ; but although this fineness of 

 feature is seldom accompanied by more than average 

 paleness of colour, I have sometimes thought it 

 might be traceable to European or Arab influences. 

 The teeth are invariably good. Among the Sena 

 people the two centre incisors in the upper jaw are 

 filed into the shape of an inverted V. Probably 

 the most repulsive type of all, as it is happily the 

 rarest, is the Albino, who, owing to his unlovely 

 and unusual appearance, is certainly not a person 

 of much consideration in the native communities, 

 although at times he seems to think a great deal of 

 himself The dreadful feature which is most 

 noticeable among the African Albinoes is the 

 ghastly eczema which often covers their dull, un- 

 healthy-looking white skins, exhibiting at times the 

 nystagmus produced by the non-absorption of light 

 by the pigment which should be present in the 



* A custom chiefly noticeable among the Wa-Tonga of the Barue. 



