The Yellala of the Congo . 297 
polished lumps which must have cost not a little 
suffering; the skin is pinched up between the 
fingers and sawn across with a bluntish knife, the 
deeper the better; various plants are used as 
styptics, and the proper size of the cicatrice is 
maintained by constant pressure, which makes the 
flesh protrude from the wound. The teeth were 
as barbarously mutilated as the skin ; these had 
all the incisors sharp-tipped; those chipped a 
chevron-shaped hole in the two upper or lower 
frontals, and not a few seemed to attempt con¬ 
verting the whole denture into molars. The legs 
were undeniably fine ; even Hieland Marys would 
hardly be admired here. Whilst the brown 
mothers smoked and carried their babies, the men 
bore guns adorned with brass tacks, or leaned 
upon their short, straight, conical “ spuds ” and 
hoes, long-handled bits of iron whose points, after 
African fashion, passed through the wood. I no¬ 
where saw the handsome carved spoons, the hafts 
and knife-sheaths figured by the Congo Expe¬ 
dition. 
We left the quitanda with the same shouting 
and rushing which accompanied my appearance. 
