THE PEOPLE OF THE CONGO. 281 
The women issue from the huts with morning greetings to 
their neighbours, and set about their household duties, 
while the men polish their weapons and implements of the 
chase, and set out to visit their bird-snares and fish-traps ; 
or they pack their goods for a neighbouring market, and 
trudge out to their destination ere the sun shall have risen 
high. 
When they have their regular meals it is hard to say. 
The children always seem to be gnawing something, and 
the women are constantly preparing food. I fancy the 
adults mostly feed at about an hour after sunrise, and just 
take snacks during the day, perhaps finishing up with 
another meal at night. 
After the morning repast the women go out to cultivate 
the fields or turn their hands to some industrial employ- 
ment, such as weaving, making pottery, or constructing 
coops for their hens and chickens. At noon-time all rest 
in the shade of their verandahs and indulge in tobacco- 
smoking, or pass the sultry hours in hair-dressing, personal 
decoration and friendly gossip. As the sun declines some 
form of active work is resumed, and after sunset, when 
the men have returned to the village, dancing and drinking 
of palm-wine begin, and are kept up, failing other amuse- 
ment—such as burning a person suspected of scorcery— 
until a late hour of the night, when all retire, with con- 
siderable hilarity and loud ‘talking, to the slumber from 
which they will wake up very cross the next morning. 
I have given a brief description of the tribes inhabiting 
the Lower Congo from Stanley Pool to the coast. At 
- Stanley Pool, however, just as one meets with new forms 
of butterflies, birds, and plants, so there is a decided 
change in the type of man and in the language he 
speaks. 
On the northern bank of the river the Ba-teke extend 
their range beyond the Pool westwards, to the Jué river, 
and perhaps even farther into the confines of the Ba- 
bwende, a tribe speaking a dialect of the Kongo language 
of the Lower river; but on the south bank of the river 
the Ba-teke colonies do not commence until we arrive at 
