There is another salutation used by a person to an equal, the answer to which is very various; and, in fact, every person has his own reply according to his circumstances and the way in which he thinks his neighbours regard him at the time. One man greets another by saying, Losako, Blessing on you; and he replies, Ngai nkumbaku, I am one who is cursed, i.e. the people in the town are always cursing him, or he fancies they are. Or the reply may be, Bansina, They hate me, i.e. the folk in the town do not like him; or Ngai nsu ya mai, I am a fish, i.e. Everybody likes me just as everybody likes fish; or, Nakalela bana ba ngai, I am weeping for my children, said by one mourning over some great misfortune or bereavement. A vain person arrogates to himself a phrase indicative of his egotism, while a despondent one uses a sentence that does not truly reflect the attitude of his neighbours towards him, although in his humility he may think so.
There is a curious saying after one has sneezed, viz. Ngai nya, motu mosusu, “It is not I, but someone else,” and this is accompanied by a vigorous clapping of the hands and snapping of the fingers, expressive of great astonishment. It means: I am surprised that you want to call away my spirit (the spirit is supposed to escape through the nostrils), I really am not the person you think I am, but somebody else.
The natives are fond of water, and bath frequently during a hot day; and children are bathed regularly twice a day. A mother takes her infant to the river, and, gripping it tightly just under the right armpit, she dips it beneath the water. And after holding it there many moments, she will lift it out, and just as it regains its breath to start crying, down it will go again. This is repeated about a dozen times, and then rubbing the superfluous water off with the palm of her hand, she holds it out in the sun for a few moments to dry. Riverine people can remain under the water for a long time while attending their fish-nets, and this habit they have gained from those infantile experiences, when it was either holding the breath, or drinking a quantity of dirty river water.
They wash their mouths both before and after meals, and generally carry a native tooth-brush (a piece of cane three inches long and frayed at one end) about with them, and use it frequently during the day. To this habit they probably owe the beautiful white teeth so usually found among the natives. Both men and women occasionally pay a hairdresser to comb out their hair nicely, and plait it into three plaits—two standing out at right angles to the temples and one standing out above the forehead. They also frequently rub their bodies with palm-oil and camwood powder, and will sometimes blacken their eyebrows.
The land surrounding a town belongs to the people who live in the town. Certain landmarks, as streams, forests, etc., are agreed upon as boundaries. If there is a town near the boundary the land reaches right up to the boundary of the next town, but if the town is some distance from the forest boundary, then the ground between the boundaries is neutral land in which the folk of both towns can hunt, cut timber, etc., as they please. Within the boundary the people of the town are free to make their farms and build their houses where they like, provided the land is not already occupied by someone else. Priority of occupation is the only title recognized. There is no such thing as unclaimed land. It is either within the boundary and is claimed by the town living on it, or it is between the boundaries and is for the benefit of the near towns as neutral hunting, etc., but no one can sell that land without the consent of those towns that are mutually benefited by it.
If a slave belonging to a man of the town cultivated a piece of land owned by her master’s town, she had full rights over it, and her master is careful to see that those rights are not infringed. Of course, she cannot sell the ground, but she can sell the farm as a farm and the stuff growing on it, and the person who buys the “stuff” can continue to cultivate it, if she is an inhabitant of the town owning the land, if not, she can let the produce mature there, and when she has removed the said produce the land will revert again to the town.
Men, women, and children can own, for the time being, the land that they have cleared for farming purposes; and can own slaves whom they have bought or inherited. I have known a case in which a slave owned a slave, and that slave—the property of another slave—owned a slave also. When we bought a piece of land in 1890, the price given was divided among the head-men in the town according to their importance, and they gave a part of their shares to their followers—members of their family, but not to their slaves. The State told us we could take the plot of land we wanted for nothing; but we recognized the natives’ rights in their land, and thus paid them compensation for relinquishing those rights to us. If we had not done so, the natives would have regarded us as interlopers who had stolen their land, and I think their view would have been the right one.
The river running by the land belonging to a town is the joint property of the townsfolk for fishing purposes. People of other towns are not allowed to fish there. There are, however, large tracts of neutral water where anyone can fish with trap or net, provided no one else is fishing in that spot. These fishing rights are so well recognized that men never think of fishing along our bank without first seeking our permission.
Slaves can be sold by their owner; and they can also be killed by their master, and no one can prosecute him for murder—he has simply destroyed his own property, and “surely a man can do what he likes with his own goods.” Slaves are, as a rule, treated well, for they can easily run away, and their owner will then lose the money invested in them. It is to the owner’s interest to look properly after them—to house them, to provide them with wives or husbands, and maintain their rights as members of the community. I have known some few slaves run away; but I have known more than a few to be treated like members of the family. The better the slaves are treated, the more secure are their masters of their services and value.
The eldest son takes his father’s title, and also inherits a larger proportion of the property than his brothers. The amount depends on the number of sons—if there are three sons, the eldest takes a half, the second son two-thirds of the remaining half, and the last son the rest. The property of a woman goes to her husband, and, failing him, to her own sons, or daughters. The sons of a free woman take priority over those by a slave wife. On the Upper Congo father-right is the rule, whereas on the Lower Congo mother-right is the recognized native law.