NATIVES OF BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA 407 
customary for the chief to travel in this fashion, and it is a means of pro¬ 
gression I have frequently made use of myself with great advantage when 
traversing marshes or thick grass jungle. 
Various positions and gestures are used in salutation. In the southern part 
of British Central Africa the natives kneel and clap their hands. In the 
countries bordering on some of the Portuguese possessions and in Makualand, 
the natives clap their hands and simultaneously scrape their feet backwards 
along the ground, one foot at a time. In the northern districts of Lake 
Nyasa and thence westward, the 
position in salutation is most 
extraordinary, especially if it is 
an inferior saluting a superior. 
The man who is greeting you 
will throw himself on his stomach 
and smack himself violently on 
the hinder parts. Nearly every¬ 
where the salutation of the 
women differs from that of the 
men and is generally confined 
to kneeling down with the back 
held erectly whilst the hands are 
placed over the knees. In excep¬ 
tional circumstances, however, 
the women will positively wallow 
at the man’s feet and endeavour 
to place his foot on their necks. 
This also is a posture occasion¬ 
ally assumed by suppliants of 
the other sex or by prisoners 
abjectly entreating for pardon. 
From this gesture arises the 
well-known phrase indicative of 
absolute submission, “To catch 
the leg,” the idea being that the 
suppliant endeavours to seize the 
leg of the great personage so 
rhat he may place the foot on 
his neck. In our various wars, A YAO woman 
whenever the defeated chief has 
sought for peace he has always sent in a message that he wishes to “catch 
the Queen’s leg.” 
As regards physiognomy, the expression of the negro’s face is somewhat 
stolid and there is not nearly as much play of emotion in his features as there is 
with the European. I am afraid the preponderant expression is a sulky one 
though that arises more because the coarse heavy features express sulkiness 
to our ideas than because the man intends to look sullen. In reality they are 
almost always of cheerful disposition and even when all the surrounding 
circumstances are most gloomy it is easy to provoke a laugh ; and as already 
recorded, they laugh well ; and laughter lights up their faces to advantage 
making them quite like a man and a brother. They will somewhat readily 
shed tears either for pain or for sorrow. As regards psychology there are 
