394 
BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 
the south end of Tanganyika and along the Luapula, might appear to the 
unobservant traveller a very red brown in tint ; but this would be owing 
to their habit of colouring themselves (like the people of the Congo basin) 
with powdered redwood or camwood mixed with oil, or red-ochre mixed with 
fat. Occasionally there are cases of positive “ Xanthism,” or a state of colora¬ 
tion similar in a much less degree to Albinism—namely that wherein the colour 
of the skin and the iris of the eye is quite a light yellowish brown. This type 
is very much admired by the negroes, especially in a woman ; for their general 
tendency is to admire the lighter-coloured skin rather than the darker. The 
wives of chiefs have often been pointed out to me for special notice who have 
skins and eyes of this rather disagreeable pale yellow brown. Perhaps it is the 
iris of the eye being of this light yellow colour like that of a lion’s eye, which 
is so disagreeable. Fine dark eyes with a pale golden skin would certainly 
appeal to the European’s sense of beauty. 
Cases of Albinism, where the hair is yellowish white, the iris of the eye 
pink, and the body-skin an unwholesome-looking reddish white, are not un¬ 
common, though perhaps not quite so common as they are on the West Coast 
of Africa. 
I do not think that any of the tribes in British Central Africa can show 
a difference of colour between the rulers or the ruling caste and the mass of 
the people. Some of the chiefs are blacker than the majority, others again 
are relatively light coloured. In regard to average depth of tint amongst the 
various tribes, I should say that those with the blackest skins 1 were the 
A-lolo, the Atonga, the Awa-nkonde, the A-mambwe, the A-lungu, perhaps 
the Aba-bisa and the A-senga. I have seen slaves from the Upper Luapula 
River, and from the still more distant Lualaba, who were so very black as 
almost to approximate in tint to the deepest shade given by TojTnard, No. 2 
(which shade however I believe to be impossibly black and not actually to 
be found on the skin of any human being existing). Some of the Senga and 
Ba-tumbuka slaves amongst the northern Angoni are very black in colour. 
The lightest-tinted tribe is probably the Yao. A good many of the 
A-nyanja are light tinted, but it is a dirty yellow, which suggests ancient 
Bushman - Hottentot intermixture, and is often associated with a low type 
of face and a squat body. Occasionally a light - coloured Angoni is seen, 
which is no doubt due to his being of a more or less Zulu origin. 
As in all other negroes and dark-skinned races, the skin of the inner part 
of the hands and the sole of the foot is a pinkish-yellow. 2 The skin of the 
arm-pits is often much lighter in colour than the rest of the body. Negro 
children are invariably born with skins of a pinkish yellow, similar in colour 
to that on the hands and feet of the adult. The colour of their skin darkens 
rapidly, though in some infants more rapidly than in others. Negroes who 
are clothed from their youth up, and lead a life which does not much expose 
the naked body to the air, would appear to have skins slightly paler in tone 
than those of the average naked negroes. 
The texture of the skin is usually coarse and rough unless kept in good 
condition by constant washing and oiling. Its natural oily secretion does not 
seem to be abundant, to judge by the dry scaly appearance of the skins of 
men who from one cause or another have been unable to have recourse to 
1 Each tribe however constantly offering individual exceptions with specially light colour. 
2 Apud viros incircumcisos, glans penis colore carnoso est; sed glans circumcisa, ubi exponitur, 
nigrescit. 
