ETHNOLOGY. The natives of the Congo Free State are Negroid in race, largely mixed with Hamites of Caucasic blood. The Negroid ele ment. far from homogeneous in physical charac teristics, presents a great variety of types, due to intermixture with the true negroes as well as the pygmies north of them. The natives are handsomer than the negro, shorter in stature, less dolichocephalic and prognathic, the nose is more prominent and narrower, and the forehead less convex. Steel-gray eyes prevail in some tribes. In speech there exists over the Congo Basin the most astonishing unity. With the exception of the northern border, where true negro dialects have intruded, the languages all belong to the Bantuan family (from aba, or La, plurality. and nte, person, comes ba-ntu, men, people). They are agglutinative, and use the prefix almost exclusively for modi fying the meaning of the fundamental term. These languages have scarcely been studied suffi ciently for a minute classification. The Congo ese, both men and women, are clever in handi craft. They are not mechanical, however, and it is doubtful whether one of them ever invented a machine. Evidences of a Stone Age among them are meagre. Nature having furnished iron ore easily worked in open fires, the Iron Age has had a long history among them. The women are excellent weavers; the men are excessively fond of ornament. Their art sense is most
primitive. Their knowledge of nature is confined to practical acquaintance with things of use.
In social organization and customs the tribes of the Congo present the greatest varieties. In some of them the tribal bond seems loose, and cannibalism prevails to a dreadful extent. On the larger rivers and under more favorable skies, where there is an infusion of Hamitic blood and the benefit of Hamitic tuition. large empires have arisen, the form of whose govern ment is purely despotic. Under such organiza tion, polygamy and slavery are the legitimate types of family life. To the Bantu mind, the spirit world lies very near the material world. In faith he is an animist of the lowest type—i.e. a hecastotheist; everything is vital, a vague somebody. Moreover, there are more spirits than bodies, and they wander about night and day, benevolent and malevolent. In cult there is no definite organization for social worship. except where the Caucasian race has taught it. Reli gion is personal. its minister is the sorcerer or wizard, who knows how to call forth this spirit and that, to appease the powers that do harm even with human sacrifices, and to compel the services of the benevolent ones. See Colored Plate of AFRICAN RACES.