The Baluba women are graceful, lively, gay, and industrious. The whole Baluba race, and the women more especially, are no darker than the Egyptians. They have very good features, with the exception of the nose, which is flat; though even this is more prominent, and has a more pronounced bridge, than is common amongst negro races. The lips are thin and well formed, the face oval, and the eyes large and brilliant. Most of the women of the Baluba race use a pigment to blacken the upper and lower lids, as do many European women, though this custom is not peculiar to them alone, but is common wherever Arab influence has penetrated in the Congo Basin.

Nearly all the natives of this region are brown or dark yellow in colour, a really black person being very rare. The front teeth are all filed, though, strange to say, this is