Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/478

 394 WEST AFEICA. Inhabitants. The inliabitants of West Equatorial Africa consist for tlie most part of immi- grants from the east, the ceaseless tides of migration either sweeping away the aborigines, or else by intermingling with them forming fresh ethnical groups which now render all classification impossible. The best known nation are the Mpongwes (Pongos) of the Gaboon, whose Bantu language is by far the most widely diffused throughout these coastlands. It has been carefully studied by the missionaries and others, who speak with admiration of its harmonious sounds and logical structure. Thanks to the precision of the rules determining the relations of roots and affixes, all ideas may be expressed with surprising accuracy, so that it has been found possible to translate the gospels and compose several religious works without borrowing a single foreign word. The Mpongwes, who call themselves Ayogo, qr " the Wise," possess a copious collection of national songs, myths, and traditions, besides which the elders are acquainted with the " Hidden Words," a sort of secret language of unknown origin. Although the transition is abrupt between Mpongwe and the eastern Bantu idioms, all clearly belong to the same linguistic stock, and fully one-fifth of the Mpongwe vocabulary reappears in the Swahili of the east coast. The Mpongwes proper are a mere fragment of a formerly powerful nation, and are being gradually absorbed by the immigrants from the interior. Those who call themselves " Children of the Soil," and who were distinguished by their physical beauty, are slowly disappearing, carried off by small -pox, consumption, scrofulous affections, and the pernicious habit of smoking liamba, a kind of hemp like the hashish of Eastern peoples. Those grouped round the Catholic and Protestant missions call themselves Christians, and even the fetish- worshippers sell their sacred groves for ardent spirits. All are intelligent, but without perseverance, and frivolous boasters, who have to be replaced on the Government works by Kroomen or coolies from Senegambia. The Benga (Mbenga) tribes of Corisco Island and the opposite coast speak a distinct Bantu dialect, nearly related to that of the Ba-Kale, a powerful nation who have not yet reached the coast, occupying the inland forest between the Muni and Sette Kama rivers. The Ba-Kale, whose chief tribes lie south of the Ogoway, are said to number about one hundred thousand, but are rapidly diminish- ing, whole clans having disappeared within a generation under the pressure of the inland peoples advancing seawards. Since the appearance of the whites in the Ogoway basin, the social usages of the Ba-Kale have been considerably modified. Formerly warriors and hunters, they are now mostly traders, packmen, and brokers, monopolising the transit traffic about the lower cour§e of the river ; their Di-Kele language, mixed with Mpongwe elements, has become the chief medium of intercourse among the riverain populations as far as the first cataracts. They have ceased to work iron and copper, and now obtain by barter all the European arms and utensils that they require. The Ba-I^gwes, who dwell some 60 miles east of the cataracts between the