According to Yumbila, the populated districts here-
a_ about are known to the Wyyanzi and Bangala as
Langa-Langa (the upper country?). This is the El
Dorado of native ivory buyers, probably from the unsophisticated
aboriginism of the clotheless and over-
tattooed beings they met here.
Few of our crews believed that 'there were women
of their colour who went about before men’s eyes
absolutely nude. Naked busts and limbs freely exposed
were common, they were aware, through the exigencies
of aboriginal life, but this unabashed nudity much
astonished them.
A word must be uttered in extenuation of this
shameless exposure of their persons by the women of
Langa-Langa. Perceiving that cloth or other covering
is unobtainable to screen their persons from the gaze
of men, they have resorted to marring that comeliness
of which they originally might have boasted by scar-
\ ring their faces and busts. Or was it the jealousy of
the men, who imagined this hideous device to shield
their women from harm ? However the folly, nay,
crime', originated, it nas served the purpose effectually,
and the Langa-Langa people, by immolating that
smoothness of outline of the face and velvety touch
of the skin, have saved themselves from being enslaved.
Strangely enough, the Langa-Langa people
think the style of scarring their faces by thousands
of little cuts, interspersed with huge tumorous blisters,
to be beautifying ; and Maka-kuru, having become my
brother, earnestly implored me to give him the oppor-
/t
tunity of exercising his skill in this novel art oí
personal adornment on my own face!
They have many more muskets at Langa-Langa than
they owned in 1877. In that year they only possessed
four, with no powder, but the Bangala have since then
extended their influence, and now there may be probably
a hundred guns on both banks of the river. Like
other natives, even those, near to the coast, the loud
NATIVE OF LAKGA-LANGA^
startling roar of powder has a charm for them; and
though they are not bold against Bangala and Irebu
warriors, they are willing enough to frighten people in
the interior who have not yet succeeded in obtaining
the much prized musket.
The currency here changes. The whole piece
(twenty-four yards) of domestics and stripes effectively
served us as far as Manyanga. Blue glass beads be
¡1883.
Nov. 1.
Langa-
Langa.