Q7TA A JOURNEY UP THE RIVER CONGO. 
old term has slowly journeyed onward with the extension 
of the plant. 
The Ba-kongo of Palabala are afiner race than the de- 
oraded negroid PA-shi- kongo or A-so-rongo of the coast. Yet 
they do not display an entirely Bantu type, such as one sees — 
in the Ba-yansi of the Upper river. Their skin, however, 
is not the dead coal-black of the coast tribes, but j 1S often : 
a warm chocolate or ruddy brown. They do not practise 
much personal adornment, either by cicatrization, tatooing 
or painting the skin with divers pigments. They are 
naturally a hairy race, especially about the face—some of 
the chiefs wearing copious beards, whiskers and moustache 
—but on the body the pile is plucked out.from the age 
of puberty, otherwise their bodies would be partially 
covered with short curly hair. The two front incisor 
teeth in the upper jaw are occasionally chipped, but this 
is not a regular custom, as it is farther up the river, — 
Also among the Ba-bwende of Manyanga and the sur- 
rounding district large nose-rings are passed through the 
septum of the nose, and earrings are frequently worn. 
Circumcision 1s everywhere practised on the males, and 
will be treated of in its place as a semi-religious rite. 
In character the Ba-kongo are indolent, fickle, and 
sensual. They dislike bloodshed as a general rule, and, 
save for certain superstitious customs, are rarely cruel, 
showing kindness and gentleness to animals. When 
their passions are excited, however, by fear of witchcraft 
or a wish to revenge grave injuries, they can become very 
demons of fanatical rage; and the people, that in their 
calmer moments will abuddas at an abrasion of the skin 
in a friend or neighbour, will, when he is convicted of 
sorcery, leap and shout with frenzied joy around his fiery - 
stake while he frizzles alive. Witch or wizard-burning — 
(as a rule there are more witches killed) is very common 
among the debased tribes of the coast, and the poison- — 
ordeal, already mentioned in Chapter III. , prevails largely 
over the Lower Congo lands. In fact, in many a Ba-konga 
village, life must be rendered miserable by the constant 
accusations of sorcery. At Palabala, for instance, for 
