med in the half light. In his vestments the priest
was a striking figure. All about him knelt the score of naked savages
who made up the congregation. They crossed themselves constantly and
made the usual responses. I must confess that the ceremony was strangely
moving and impressive.

As soon as I reached the Congo River I saw that the natives were bigger
and stronger than those of the Katanga and other sections that I had
visited. The most important of the river tribes are the Bangalas, who
are magnificent specimens of manhood. In Stanley's day they were masters
of a considerable portion of the Upper Congo River region and contested
his way skilfully and bitterly. They are more peacefully inclined today
and hundreds of them are employed as wood-boys and firemen on the river
boats.

The Bangalas practice cicatrization to an elaborate extent. This process
consists of opening a portion of the flesh with a knife, injecting an
irritating juice into the wound, and allowing the place to swell. The
effect is to raise a lump or weal. Some of these excrescences are tiny
bumps and others develop into large welts that disfigure the anatomy.
Extraordinary designs are literally carved on the faces and bodies of
the men and women. Although it is an intensely painful operation,--some
of the wounds must be opened many times--the native submits to it with
pleasure because the more ornate the design the more resplendent the
wearer feels. The women are usually more liberally marked than the men.

Cicatrization is popular in various parts of Central Africa but nowhere
to the degree that it prevails on the Congo River and among the
Bangalas, where it is a tribal mark. I observed women whose entire
bodies from the ankles up to the head were one mass of cicatrized
designs. One of the favorite areas is the stomach. This is just another
argument against clothes. Cicatrization bears the same relation to the
African native that tattooing does to the whites of some sections. Human
vanity works in mysterious ways to express itself.

In this connection it is perhaps worth while to point out one of the
reasons why the Congo atrocity exhorters found such ready exhibits for
their arguments. The Central African native delights in disfigurement
not only as a sign of "beauty," but as a means of retaliation for real
or fancied wrongs among his own. In the old days dozens of slaves, and
sometimes wives, were sacrificed upon the death of an important chi