ef.
Their spirits were supposed to provide a bodyguard to escort the
departed potentate safely into the land of the hereafter. One of the
former prerogatives of a husband was the sanction to chop off the hand
or foot of a wife if she offended or disobeyed him. Hence Central Africa
abounded in mutilated men, women and children. While some of these
barbarities may have been due to excessive zeal or temper in State or
corporation officials there is no doubt that many instances were the
result of native practices.

The reference to cicatrization brings to mind another distinctive
Central African observance. I refer to the ceremony of blood
brotherhood. When two men, who have been enemies, desire to make the
peace and swear eternal amity, they make a small incision in one of
their forearms sufficiently deep to cause the flow of blood. Each then
licks the blood from the other's arm and henceforth they are related as
brothers. This performance was not only common among the blacks but was
also practiced by the whites and the blacks the moment civilization
entered the wild domains. Stanley's arms were one mass of scars as the
result of swearing constant blood brotherhood. It became such a nuisance
and at the same time developed into such a serious menace to his health,
that the rite had to be amended. Instead of licking the blood the
comrades now merely rub the incisions together on the few occasions
nowadays when fealty is sworn. I am glad to say that I escaped the
ordeal.

Much to my regret I saw only a few of the much-described pygmies who
dwelt mainly in the regions northeast of Stanleyville, where Stanley
first met them. They are all under three feet in height, are light brown
in colour, and wear no garments when on their native heath. They are the
shyest of all the tribes I encountered. These diminutive creatures
seldom enter the service of the white man and prefer the wild life of
the jungle. I was informed in the Congo that the real pygmy is fast
disappearing from the map. Intermarriage with other tribes, and
settlement into more or less permanent villages, have increased the
height of the present generation and helped to remove one of the last
human links with Stanley's great day.

The Congo River native is perhaps the shrewdest in all Central Africa.
He is a born trader, and he can convert the conventional shoe-string
into something worth while. One reason why the Bangalas take positions
as firemen and woodboys on