Identifier: voicefromcongoco00ward (find matches)
Title: A voice from the Congo : comprising stories, anecdotes, and descriptive notes
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Ward, Herbert, 1863-1919
Subjects: Ward, Herbert, 1863-1919 Africa, Central -- Description and travel Africa, Central -- Social life and customs
Publisher: New York : Charles Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: University of Connecticut Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Connecticut Libraries

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served as cooksmate on an English ship and had picked up a 160 A VOICE FROM THE CONGO smattering of the language, but he found difficultyin pronouncing the letter r. Once when ques-tioned about the dinner, he replied: Lice and loastmeat. 5jt . 3f= * * * At the mouth of Lomami River the people wearlarge circular pieces of ivory in their upper lips,which recalls Sequabos remark to Dr. Living-stone, alluding to a Zambesi tribe who were simi-larly adorned: These people want to make their mouths looklike ducks. ***** In telling a person to be silent, the natives ofLukolela say: Tie your mouth. ***** We do not want cloth, said the people of theMalinga River. Give us something to wear. Giveus beads! ***** An Arab one day asked me to explain the con-tents of a little tin which had been given to himby Wissman during his memorable voyage acrossAfrica. I took pains to make him understand that thecontents of the tin represented the essence of beefprepared in such a manner that the greatest amount
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£ 2 &H g ODDITIES 161 of nourishment was concentrated in the smallestpossible quantity. You surprise me, said he,because I was led to understand that it contained asalve, and in fact, I have used it in trying to healmy ulcerated leg! JjC 2flC 5jC 2f* 5j* I once noticed an alarm bell suspended over theentrance of a stockaded village. It was a veryclumsy affair, and only an interloping elephant wouldhave been likely to make it ring. * * * * * A long neck is considered a point of beauty inwomen. I once heard two natives talking of awoman that one of them had recently purchased.Placing his hands one horizontally above the other,the proud purchaser signified by this gesture that herneck was equal in length to the width of his twohands. ***** Just before the decapitation of a slave, who wasbeing sacrificed according to custom after the deathof a chief, I observed a relative of the recently de-ceased chief engaged in serious conversation withthe poor man, whose hands and feet were alrea

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