[Illustration: Cicatrised Batetela Woman (Lualaba-Kassai).] [Illustration: Specimens of Hairdressing among Women of the Sango Tribe, Banzyville (Ubanghi).] CHAPTER XIII TRIBES OF THE CONGO STATE [Sidenote: Population of Congo State.] The difficulty in arriving at an estimate of the native population of the Congo Free State that tolerably approximates the truth is very great. Some authorities place it at as high as 30,000,000, some as low as 15,000,000, while other observers, equally entitled to respect, assert that 20,000,000 is about accurate. This wide divergence of opinion ceases to be matter for surprise when we reflect that the population of an empire so important as China, known to white men for centuries, is variously estimated by them at anything between 300,000,000 and 400,000,000. Compared with our knowledge of China, our acquaintance with the countries and peoples comprised within the boundaries of the Congo Free State is a thing of yesterday. The nomadic habits of the various semi-savage tribes of which the population of the Congo Free State consists renders their exact enumeration impossible. Besides, there can be no doubt but that vast numbers of the dwarf (Pigmy) race inhabit parts of the great Central African forest not yet penetrated by the white man. [Sidenote: Advancing Civilisation.] It is certain, however, that all the vast region with which this book is concerned contains no race or tribe that has not come in contact with the civilising Belgians, or whose barbarous habits and customs have not, in greater or lesser degree, been modified into some semblance of conformity with the standard of civilisation exemplified by their new masters. At present that conformity is far from being general, and where it is found it is invariably more superficial than real. To frankly admit so much is in nowise a reflection upon the extent or value of the civilising influence exerted by the Belgians upon their King’s dusky subjects. The complete transformation of the barbarian into the civilised man is not possible in one generation. A consideration of the principal tribes, their habits and customs, as they were when the white strangers first appeared among them, and as to some extent they continue to this day, cannot, therefore, fail in interest. [Sidenote: Origin of Congo Races.] The nomadic habits of the native races inhabiting the Congo region, discussed at length in another chapter, render an inquiry into their origin a work of great difficulty and uncertain result. Sir Harry Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., whose expert opinion upon this subject is entitled to the utmost respect, believes that the Negro type which originated in Southern Asia wandered across the peninsula of Arabia into Eastern Africa, mingling, perhaps, on the way, with the Caucasians from the north, evolving that negroid race known as the Hamite, whence sprang the early Egyptians, and to which the Somali, Gala, Abyssinian, and Nubian owe their origin.