BANGALA
Far away in Africa, near where the pygmies live, there is a great river called the Kongo. The land on either side of this river for many miles is called the Kongo Valley.
There are hundreds of miles of great woods in this valley. These woods are not like our woods. They are very thick with vines and plants. There are also a great many kinds of trees.
In the woods are birds with very bright colors. There are birds called sunbirds. Often green, yellow, scarlet, and purple feathers are found on these birds. What a pretty sight it must be to see them flit about in the sun!
There are also many kinds of pretty flowers in the woods. These flowers are as gay in color as the birds.
Many tribes of negroes live in the Kongo Valley. They live in huts made of mats. The mats are made of strong grass. The grass is first twisted into cords. Then the cords are braided into mats.
The people also use mats for their beds; but they do not put the mats on the ground. They tie them to a frame raised a little above the ground.
[Illustration: Kongo Negroes at a Mission School.]
These negroes also make baskets, bowls, pots, and wooden spoons. The bowls and pots they make out of clay.
It is very warm all the year round in the Kongo Valley. So the people wear very little clothing. They rub their bodies with palm oil.
They have a funny way of wearing their hair. While they are young their hair is braided. Then it is twisted into all sorts of knots and shapes. They do not untwist it, but keep it so always. They think these queer knots and shapes are very pretty.
[Illustration: A Kongo Village.]
The women do all the hard work. They cook the food. They do the other housework. They plant the corn and beans.
[Illustration: Headdress of Kongo Women.]
The men spend a great deal of time in fishing. They also hunt and kill elephants to get their tusks for ivory. There are many elephants in the Kongo Valley. They roam about in large herds. It must be a hard task to kill an elephant!
One of the tribes in the Kongo Valley is called the Bangala tribe. The men are tall and strong and fierce. They are always fighting with other tribes. This makes the other tribes very much afraid of them.
The negroes of this tribe have a strange way of making friends with a white man. They will do him no harm if he is willing to be their "blood brother."
This is the way they make a white man their blood brother. The black man takes a limb of palm tree which has two branches. With one branch in his hand, he falls on the ground before the white man. The white man takes hold of the other branch. Then the black man splits the limb into two parts with his knife.
After this is done, an old man of the tribe comes to the white man and the black man. He puts the white man's arm over the black man's arm. When their arms are together, he makes a small cut in each arm. He makes this cut to draw blood. Then the old man puts salt and the dust of banana leaves into the blood, and rubs both arms together. The black man and the white man are then blood brothers.
These people have also a strange way of taking care of their canoes. When they are not using them, they keep them under water. They say that the canoes will last longer if kept under water.